The Freemason's Daughter: A Novel — page 272: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE FREEMASONS DAUGHTER. 265 vants, Mrs. S., accompanied by her eldest daughter, Prudence, started for Burnley, with the intention of paying a visit to Amy Lawrence, who had taken up her abode in the hospitable mansion of William Bowles’s father—one of those honest, straightforward men who, although the architects of their own fortune, had little in the foundation of it to regret; for not a stone was cemented by injustice. Mary Heartland, his son’s intended wife, was like- wise staying at Burnley. Like Amy she was an orphan, left to the guardianship of a maiden aunt—one of those exceedingly proper persons who, never having experi- enced any of the weaknesses of humanity, as she styled them, herself, was without pity when she detected them in others. Although she had performed her trust to her brother’s child with scrupulous fidelity, she had not made the least effort to gain the affection of her niece —she considered that it was Mary’s duty to love her ; and the warm-hearted girl, although chilled by her ungenial nature, tried very hard to do so, and some- times persuaded herself that she really did do so. Like Mrs. Small, Mary Heartland’s aunt was one of those benevolent ladies who ¢a/k much of the poor and their destitute condition, their vices, and wants: there was this difference, however, between them—Muiss Heartland really gave her money; Mrs. Small be- stowed only her time; but both exercised that inquisitorial, prying curiosity into the feelings and COniiclooecl SS (SO