She had a
confident hope, however, that her rich impulses, her talent for
embroidery, would still find their application, and this confidence
was justified before many months had elapsed.
Catherine continued to live in her father's house in spite of its
being represented to her that a maiden lady of quiet habits might
find a more convenient abode in one of the smaller dwellings, with
brown stone fronts, which had at this time begun to adorn the
transverse thoroughfares in the upper part of the town. She liked
the earlier structure--it had begun by this time to be called an
"old" house--and proposed to herself to end her days in it. If it
was too large for a pair of unpretending gentlewomen, this was better
than the opposite fault; for Catherine had no desire to find herself
in closer quarters with her aunt. She expected to spend the rest of
her life in Washington Square, and to enjoy Mrs. Penniman's society
for the whole of this period; as she had a conviction that, long as
she might live, her aunt would live at least as long, and always
retain her brilliancy and activity. Mrs. Penniman suggested to her
the idea of a rich vitality.
On one of those warm evenings in July of which mention has been made,
the two ladies sat together at an open window, looking out on the
quiet Square. It was too hot for lighted lamps, for reading, or for
work; it might have appeared too hot even for conversation, Mrs.
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