W. Pierce, the Dissenting preacher.
Mr. Higgins appeared at the shop door, for the express purpose, as it
seemed, of honouring Miss Merton and Miss Woodbourne each with a very
low bow.
'There, Helen, is my punishment,' said Elizabeth; 'since you are
desirous of poetical justice upon me.'
'Not upon you,' said Helen, 'only upon Harriet.'
'Harriet has lost Fido,' said Elizabeth.
Here Rupert came to meet them, and no more was said on the subject.
Rupert obeyed his sister tolerably well during most of the day,
though he was sorely tempted to ask Elizabeth to send Anne an
abstract, in short-hand, of the lecture on Personal Respectability;
but he refrained, for he was really fond of his cousin, and very
good-natured, excepting when his vanity was offended.
Anne however was in a continual fright, for he delighted in
tormenting her by going as near the dangerous subject as he dared;
and often, when no one else thought there was any danger, she knew by
the expression of his eye that he had some spiteful allusion on his
lips. Besides, he thought some of the speeches he had made in the
morning too clever to be wasted on his mother and sister, when his
cousins were there to hear them, and Anne could not trust to his
forbearance to keep them to himself all day, so that she kept a
strict watch upon him.
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