'It is not only that.'
'Ah! you did not see him at Redclyffe, or you would do more than simply forgiving him as a Christian.'
'I am very sorry for him.'
'That is not quite enough,' said Charles, smiling, with a mischievous air, though fully in earnest. 'Is it, Charlotte? She must take him home to her mamma's own heart.'
'No, no, that is asking too much, Charlie,' said Mrs. Edmonstone. 'Only one ever was--' then breaking off--'and I can never think of Philip as I used to do.'
'I like him much better now,' said Charlotte.
'For my part,' said Charles, 'I never liked him--nay, that's too mild, I could not abide him, I rebelled against him, heart, soul, and taste. If it had not been for Guy, his fashion of goodness would have made me into an extract of gall and wormwood, at the very time you admired him, and yet a great deal of it was genuine. But it is only now that I have liked him. Nay, I look up to him, I think him positively noble and grand, and when I see proofs of his being entirely repentant, I perceive he is a thorough great man. If I had not seen one greater, I should follow his young man's example and take him for my hero model.'
'As if you wanted a hero model,' whispered Charlotte, in a tone between caressing and impertinence.
'I've had one!' returned Charles, also aside.
'Yes,' said Mrs. Edmonstone, going on with her own thoughts, 'unless there had been a great fund of real goodness, he would never have felt it so deeply. Indeed, even when I best liked Philip, I never thought him capable of such repentance as he has shown.'
'If mamma wants to like him very much,' said Charlotte, 'I think she has only to look at our other company.'
'Ay!' said Charles, 'we want no more explanation of the tone of the "Thank you," with which he answered the offer to invite his sister.'
'One comfort is, she can't stay long. She has got a committee meeting for the Ladies' Literary and Scientific Association, and must go home for it the day after to-morrow,' said Charlotte.
'If you are very good, perhaps she will give you a ticket, Charlotte,' said her brother, 'and another for Bustle.'
Mrs. Henley was, meanwhile, highly satisfied with the impression she thought she was making on her aunt's family, especially on Charles and Charlotte. The latter she patronized, to her extreme though suppressed indignation, as a clever, promising girl; the former, she discovered to be a very superior young man, a most valuable assistant to her brother in his business, and her self-complacency prevented her from finding out how he was playing her off, whenever neither Philip nor Laura were at hand to be hurt by it.