Pagina 585 de 817

She had never perceived, while the regiment was in Hertfordshire,

that Lydia had any partiality for him; but she was convinced that

Lydia had wanted only encouragement to attach herself to anybody.

Sometimes one officer, sometimes another, had been her favourite,

as their attentions raised them in her opinion. Her affections

had been continually fluctuating, but never without an object.

The mischief of neglect and mistaken indulgence towards such a

girl--oh! how acutely did she now feel it!