86 EGLANTINE OR

 

tinguish you, as I would expect her to be the guide
of my wife.’

At that moment a visitor was announced, and this
put an end to the conversation.

A few days after, Doralice learned that the Viscount
had charged one of his servants to question her
domestics, and that he himself had asked one of her
masters to tell him the real truth about Eglantine’s
character. He heard, and could not doubt, from
what he had seen, that Eglantine profited in no way
from the example of such a mother.

From that time the Viscount made his visits very
rare to Doralice’s house, and soon ceased to go alto-
gether. Doralice felt sure he would have married
her daughter, if she had had the good fortune to
have fewer faults, and this vexed her very much, as
she was naturally anxious to have Eglantine well pro-
vided for, and she would ‘have preferred to give her
to Arzelle above any other.

More grief was still reserved for Doralice. Eglan-
tine was every day becoming more and more indolent,
and this gave her mother new sorrows.

At seventeen she was still under the same masters,
who should have been finished with her at twelve
years of age. She showed no taste for any occupa-