It was a romantic interest in this attractive and unfortunate
young man, and yet it was not such an interest as Catherine might
have been jealous of. Mrs. Penniman had not a particle of jealousy
of her niece. For herself, she felt as if she were Morris's mother
or sister--a mother or sister of an emotional temperament--and she
had an absorbing desire to make him comfortable and happy. She had
striven to do so during the year that her brother left her an open
field, and her efforts had been attended with the success that has
been pointed out. She had never had a child of her own, and
Catherine, whom she had done her best to invest with the importance
that would naturally belong to a youthful Penniman, had only partly
rewarded her zeal. Catherine, as an object of affection and
solicitude, had never had that picturesque charm which (as it seemed
to her) would have been a natural attribute of her own progeny. Even
the maternal passion in Mrs. Penniman would have been romantic and
factitious, and Catherine was not constituted to inspire a romantic
passion. Mrs. Penniman was as fond of her as ever, but she had grown
to feel that with Catherine she lacked opportunity. Sentimentally
speaking, therefore, she had (though she had not disinherited her
niece) adopted Morris Townsend, who gave her opportunity in
abundance. She would have been very happy to have a handsome and
tyrannical son, and would have taken an extreme interest in his love
affairs.
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