She could not
disbelieve it all, and throw herself back upon her faith in virtue,
constancy, and honesty. She rather thought that things had changed for the
worse since she was young, and that promises were not now as binding as
they used to be. She herself had married into a Liberal family, had a
Liberal son, and would have called herself a Liberal; but she could not
fail to hear from others, her neighbours, that the English manners, and
English principles, and English society were all going to destruction in
consequence of the so-called liberality of the age. Gentlemen, she
thought, certainly did do things which gentlemen would not have done forty
years ago; and as for ladies--they, doubtless, were changed altogether.
Most assuredly she could not have brought an Andy Gowran to her mother to
tell such tales in their joint presence as this man had told!
Mrs. Hittaway had ridiculed her for saying that poor Lucy would die when
forced to give up her lover. Mrs. Hittaway had spoken of the necessity of
breaking up that engagement without a word of anger against Frank
Greystock. According to Mrs. Hittaway's views Frank Greystock had amused
himself in the most natural way in the world when he asked Lucy to be his
wife.
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