I did not see Miss Fairlie until later in the day, at dinnertime. She was not looking well, and I was sorry to observe it. She is a sweet lovable girl, as amiable and attentive to everyone about her as her excellent mother used to beā āthough, personally speaking, she takes after her father. Mrs. Fairlie had dark eyes and hair, and her elder daughter, Miss Halcombe, strongly reminds me of her. Miss Fairlie played to us in the eveningā ānot so well as usual, I thought. We had a rubber at whist, a mere profanation, so far as play was concerned, of that noble game. I had been favourably impressed by Mr. Hartright on our first introduction to one another, but I soon discovered that he was not free from the social failings incidental to his age. There are three things that none of the young men of the present generation can do. They canāt sit over their wine, they canāt play at whist, and they canāt pay a lady a compliment. Mr. Hartright was no exception to the general rule. Otherwise, even in those early days and on that short acquaintance, he struck me as being a modest and gentlemanlike young man.
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