 They moved and interested Henry, and that was enough to
secure her ear.
    Her mother alone did not feel that distinguished and predominating
affection, with which the rest of the family cherished Lucy. She regarded what
she termed her daughter's want of spirit, as a decided mark, that the more
plebeian blood of her father predominated in Lucy's veins, and used to call her
in derision her Lammermoor Shepherdess. To dislike so gentle and inoffensive a
being was impossible; but Lady Ashton preferred her eldest son, on whom had
descended a large portion of her own ambitious and undaunted disposition, to a
daughter whose softness of temper seemed allied to feebleness of mind. Her
eldest son was the more partially beloved by his mother, because, contrary to
the usual custom of Scottish families of distinction, he had been named after
the head of the house.
    »My Sholto,« she said, »will support the untarnished honour of his maternal
house, and elevate and support that of his father. Poor Lucy is unfit for courts
or crowded halls. Some country laird must be her husband, rich enough to supply
her with every comfort, without an effort on her own part, so that she may have
nothing to shed a tear for but the tender apprehension lest he may break his
neck in a fox-chase. It was not so, however, that our house was raised, nor is
it so that it can be fortified and augmented. The Lord Keeper's dignity is yet
new; it must be borne as if we were used to its weight, worthy of it, and prompt
to assert and maintain it. Before ancient authorities men bend, from customary
and hereditary deference; in our presence, they will stand erect, unless they
are compelled to prostrate themselves. A daughter fit for the sheep-fold or the
cloister, is ill-qualified to exact respect where it is yielded with reluctance;
and since Heaven refused us a third boy, Lucy should have held a character fit
to supply his place. The hour will be a happy one which disposes her hand in
marriage to some one whose energy is greater than her own, or whose ambition is
of as low an order.«
    So meditated a mother, to whom the qualities of her children's hearts, as
well as the prospect of their domestic happiness, seemed light in comparison to
their rank and temporal greatness. But, like many a parent of hot and impatient
character, she was mistaken in estimating the feelings of her daughter, who,
under a semblance of extreme indifference, nourished the germ of those
