'Mamma isn't at all well; but she's up in her own room. You mustn't be surprised, Georgey, if you find mamma very--very much cut up about this.' Then Georgiana understood that she must be content to stand all alone in the world, unless she made up her mind to give up Mr Brehgert.
'So I've come back,' said Georgiana, stooping down and kissing her mother.
'Oh, Georgiana; oh, Georgiana!' said Lady Pomona, slowly raising herself and covering her face with one of her hands. 'This is dreadful. It will kill me. It will indeed. I didn't expect it from you.'
'What is the good of all that, mamma?'
'It seems to me that it can't be possible. It's unnatural. It's worse than your wife's sister. I'm sure there's something in the Bible against it. You never would read your Bible, or you wouldn't be going to do this.'
'Lady Julia Start has done just the same thing,--and she goes everywhere.'
'What does your papa say? I'm sure your papa won't allow it. If he's fixed about anything, it's about the Jews. An accursed race;--think of that, Georgiana;--expelled from Paradise.'
'Mamma, that's nonsense.'
'Scattered about all over the world, so that nobody knows who anybody is. And it's only since those nasty Radicals came up that they have been able to sit in Parliament.'
'One of the greatest judges in the land is a Jew,' said Georgiana, who had already learned to fortify her own case.
'Nothing that the Radicals can do can make them anything else but what they are. I'm sure that Mr Whitstable, who is to be your brother-in-law, will never condescend to speak to him.'
Now if there was anybody whom Georgiana Longestaffe had despised from her youth upwards it was George Whitstable. He had been a laughing-stock to her when they were children, had been regarded as a lout when he left school, and had been her common example of rural dullness since he had become a man. He certainly was neither beautiful nor bright;--but he was a Conservative squire born of Tory parents. Nor was he rich;--having but a moderate income, sufficient to maintain a moderate country house and no more. When first there came indications that Sophia intended to put up with George Whitstable, the more ambitious sister did not spare the shafts of her scorn. And now she was told that George Whitstable would not speak to her future husband! She was not to marry Mr Brehgert lest she should bring disgrace, among others, upon George Whitstable! This was not to be endured.