Being old she forgot easily, and, besides, she was absorbed
in these days in the preparations for my going to Dublin.
For the moment my own interest in the great matter had waned. I used to
like to slip away from the perpetual fitting on of garments to ride or
drive about the roads outside the Abbey. I was afraid now to walk in
unfrequented places, lest I should meet with Richard Dawson; and there
are few places in the neighbourhood of Aghadoe which are frequented. I
grew quite zealous about afternoon calls, and would remind my
grandmother of her neglect of her social duties, a matter which had
never troubled me before.
"Why, what has come to you, Bawn?" she asked at length. "You have always
been unwilling to make calls before, from the time you were a little
girl of six, and I thought it would be a fine thing to take you and
Theobald in the barouche to call on Mrs. Langdale, but when I looked for
you I could find you nowhere and afterwards I discovered that you had
both hidden in the loft in the stable-yard. Well, I suppose you are
growing up and this is a sign of it."
I did not undeceive her. I had always abhorred the afternoon calls and
the dinner-parties, and most of the other social functions to which I
had gone; but now it was another matter.
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