Almond, who always
enjoyed an opportunity to discuss Lavinia's peculiarities with her
brother. "She didn't want me to tell you that she had asked me about
Mr. Townsend; but I told her I would. She always wants to conceal
everything."
"And yet at moments no one blurts things out with such crudity. She
is like a revolving lighthouse; pitch darkness alternating with a
dazzling brilliancy! But what did you tell her?" the Doctor asked.
"What I tell you; that I know very little of him."
"Lavinia must have been disappointed at that," said the Doctor; "she
would prefer him to have been guilty of some romantic crime.
However, we must make the best of people. They tell me our gentleman
is the cousin of the little boy to whom you are about to entrust the
future of your little girl."
"Arthur is not a little boy; he is a very old man; you and I will
never be so old. He is a distant relation of Lavinia's protege. The
name is the same, but I am given to understand that there are
Townsends and Townsends. So Arthur's mother tells me; she talked
about 'branches'--younger branches, elder branches, inferior
branches--as if it were a royal house. Arthur, it appears, is of the
reigning line, but poor Lavinia's young man is not. Beyond this,
Arthur's mother knows very little about him; she has only a vague
story that he has been 'wild.' But I know his sister a little, and
she is a very nice woman.
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