She did what was kindest
and wisest under the circumstances, accepted without remonstrance the
part assigned her. The young are usually romantic, and their first
impulses are generously impracticable ones. Elizabeth was not wiser
than her years by nature, but she was wiser by her will. For the first
few minutes it had seemed to her the most honorable and womanly thing
to refuse to stand in her brother's place. But her good heart and good
sense soon told her that it would be the kindest course to submit.
Yet she was quite aware that her succession would be regarded by the
tenants and neighbors with extreme dislike. They would look upon
Richard and herself as supplanters; Richard's foreign birth would be
a constant offense; her clear mind took in all the consequences, and
she felt hurt at Antony for forcing them upon her.
She sat pale and silent, listening to all the squire said, and vainly
trying to find some honorable and kind way out of the position.
"Thou must know what thou art doing, Elizabeth," he said, "and must
take the charge wi' thy eyes open to a' it asks of thee."
Then he showed her the books of the estate, made her understand the
value of every field and meadow, of every house and farm and young
plantation of wood. "It's a grand property, and Antony was a born fool
to part wi' such a bird in t' hand for any number o' finer ones in
t' bush.
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