CHAPTER XXXIV 497
anything else . St . John did not rebuke our vivacity ; but he escaped from it : he was seldom in the house ; his parish was large , the population scattered , and he found daily business in visiting the sick and poor in its different districts .
One morning at breakfast , Diana , after looking a little pensive for some minutes , asked him , " If his plans were yet unchanged ."
" Unchanged and unchangeable ," was the reply . And he proceeded to inform us that his departure from England was now definitively fixed for the ensuing year .
" And Rosamond Oliver ?" suggested Mary , the words seeming to escape her lips involuntarily : for no sooner had she uttered them , than she made a gesture as if wishing to recall them . St . John had a book in his hand -- it was his unsocial custom to read at meals -- he closed it , and looked up ,
" Rosamond Oliver ," said he , " is about to be married to Mr . Granby , one of the best connected and most estimable residents in S- , grandson and heir to Sir Frederic Granby : I had the intelligence from her father yesterday ."
His sisters looked at each other and at me ; we all three looked at him : he was serene as glass .
" The match must have been got up hastily ," said Diana : " they cannot have known each other long ."
" But two months : they met in October at the county ball at S- . But where there are no obstacles to a union , as in the present case , where the connection is in every point desirable , delays are unnecessary : they will be married as soon as S- Place , which Sir Frederic gives up to them , can he refitted for their reception ."
The first time I found St . John alone after this communication , I felt tempted to inquire if the event distressed him : but he seemed so little to need sympathy , that , so far from venturing to offer him more , I experienced