re him so much."

"I do not admire him at all, child; I only want to know your sentiments,
and I am happy to find them so correct. It is as you think; Colonel
Egerton appears to refer nothing to principle: even the more generous
feelings I am afraid are corrupted in him, from too low intercourse with
the surface of society. There is by far too much pliability about him for
principle of any kind, unless indeed it be a principle to please, no
matter how. No one, who has deeply seated opinions of right and wrong,
will ever abandon them, even in the courtesies of polite intercourse: they
may be silent but never acquiescent: in short, my dear, the dread of
offending our Maker ought to be so superior to that of offending our
fellow creatures, that we should endeavor, I believe, to be even more
unbending to the follies of the world than we are."

"And yet the colonel is what they call a good companion--I mean a pleasant
one."

"In the ordinary meaning of the words, he is certainly, my dear; yet you
soon tire of sentiments which will not stand the test of examination, and
of a manner you cannot but see is artificial. He may do very well for a
companion, but very ill for a friend; in short, Colonel Egerton has
neither been satisfied to yield to his natural impressions, nor to obtain
new ones from a proper source; he has copied from bad models, and his work
must necessarily be imperfect."

Kissing her niece, Mrs. Wilson then retired into her own room, with the
happy assurance that she had not labored in vain; but that, with divine
aid, she had implanted a guide in the bosom of her charge that could not
fail, with ordinary care, to lead her straight through the devious path of
female duties.

Chapter VII.

A Month now passed in the ordinary occupations and amusements of a country
life, during which both Lady Moseley and Jane manifested a desire to keep
up the deanery acquaintance, that surprised Emily a little, who had ever
seen her mother shrink from communications with those whose breeding
subjected her own delicacy, to the little shocks she could but ill
conceal. In Jane this desire was still more inexplicable; for Jane had, in
a decided way very common to her, avowed her disgust of the manners of
their new associates at the commencement of the acquaintance; and yet Jane
would now even quit her own society for that of Miss Jarvis, especially if
Colonel Egerton happened to be of the party The innocence of Emily