As to the thought of his nephew's making love to his daughter, it had
almost passed from his mind. He had been so long in the habit of looking
at Elsie as outside of all common influences and exceptional in the law
of her nature, that it was difficult for him to think of her as a girl to
be fallen in love with. Many persons are surprised, when others court
their female relatives; they know them as good young or old women
enough,--aunts, sisters, nieces, daughters, whatever they may be,--but
never think of anybody's falling in love with them, any more than of
their being struck by lightning. But in this case there were special
reasons, in addition to the common family delusion,--reasons which seemed
to make it impossible that she should attract a suitor. Who would dare
to marry Elsie? No, let her have the pleasure, if it was one, at any
rate the wholesome excitement, of companionship; it might save her from
lapsing into melancholy or a worse form of madness. Dudley Venner had a
kind of superstition, too, that, if Elsie could only outlive three
septenaries, twenty-one years, so that, according to the prevalent idea,
her whole frame would have been thrice made over, counting from her
birth, she would revert to the natural standard of health of mind and
feelings from which she had been so long perverted.
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