CHAPTER XXIX
He came again, without managing the last parting; and again and
again, without finding that Mrs. Penniman had as yet done much to
pave the path of retreat with flowers. It was devilish awkward, as
he said, and he felt a lively animosity for Catherine's aunt, who, as
he had now quite formed the habit of saying to himself, had dragged
him into the mess and was bound in common charity to get him out of
it. Mrs. Penniman, to tell the truth, had, in the seclusion of her
own apartment--and, I may add, amid the suggestiveness of
Catherine's, which wore in those days the appearance of that of a
young lady laying out her trousseau--Mrs. Penniman had measured her
responsibilities, and taken fright at their magnitude. The task of
preparing Catherine and easing off Morris presented difficulties
which increased in the execution, and even led the impulsive Lavinia
to ask herself whether the modification of the young man's original
project had been conceived in a happy spirit. A brilliant future, a
wider career, a conscience exempt from the reproach of interference
between a young lady and her natural rights--these excellent things
might be too troublesomely purchased. From Catherine herself Mrs.
Penniman received no assistance whatever; the poor girl was
apparently without suspicion of her danger. She looked at her lover
with eyes of undiminished trust, and though she had less confidence
in her aunt than in a young man with whom she had exchanged so many
tender vows, she gave her no handle for explaining or confessing.
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