Places of honour had been kept for the Miss Lammeters near the head
of the principal tea-table in the wainscoted parlour, now looking
fresh and pleasant with handsome branches of holly, yew, and laurel,
from the abundant growths of the old garden; and Nancy felt an
inward flutter, that no firmness of purpose could prevent, when she
saw Mr Godfrey Cass advancing to lead her to a seat between himself
and Mr Crackenthorp, while Priscilla was called to the opposite side
between her father and the Squire. It certainly did make some
difference to Nancy that the lover she had given up was the young
man of quite the highest consequence in the parish- at home in a
venerable and unique parlour, which was the extremity of grandeur in
her experience, a parlour where she might one day have been
mistress, with the consciousness that she was spoken of as 'Madam
Cass', the Squire's wife. These circumstances exalted her inward drama
in her own eyes, and deepened the emphasis with which she declared
to herself that not the most dazzling rank should induce her to
marry a man whose conduct showed him careless of his character, but
that, 'love once, love always', was the motto of a true and pure
woman, and no man should ever have any right over her which would be a
call on her to destroy the dried flowers that she treasured, and
always would treasure, for Godfrey Cass's sake. And Nancy was
capable of keeping her word to herself under very trying conditions.
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