Anderson's unpalatable little whispers. She had
taken them as jokes as long as she had been able to do so, but was now
at last driven to perceive that other people would not do so. "Mamma,"
she said, "don't you think that that Mr. Anderson is an odious young
man?"
"No, my dear, by no means. What is there odious about him? He is very
lively; he is the second son of Sir Gregory Anderson, and has very
comfortable means of his own."
"Oh, mamma, what does that signify?"
"Well, my dear, it does signify. In the first place, he is a gentleman,
and in the next, has a right to make himself attentive to any young lady
in your position. I don't say anything more. I am not particularly
wedded to Mr. Anderson. If he were to come to me and ask for my
permission to address you, I should simply refer him to yourself, by
which I should mean to imply that if he could contrive to recommend
himself to you I should not refuse my sanction."
Then the subject for that moment dropped, but Florence was astonished to
find that her mother could talk about it, not only without reference to
Harry Annesley, but also without an apparent thought of Mountjoy
Scarborough; and it was distressing to her to think that her mother
should pretend to feel that she, her own daughter, should be free to
receive the advances of another suitor.
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