For some time past, in fact from the very commencement of Charlotte's
engagement, Mr. Sheldon had shown himself punctilious to an exceeding
degree with regard to his stepdaughter. The places to which she went, and
the people with whom she consorted, appeared to be matters of supreme
importance in his mind. When speaking of these things he gave those about
him to understand that his ideas had been the same from the time of
Charlotte's leaving school; but Diana knew that this was not true. Mr.
Sheldon's theories had been much less strict, and Mr. Sheldon's practice
had been much more careless, prior to Miss Halliday's engagement.
No stately principal of a school for young ladies could have been more
particular as to the movements of her charges--more apprehensive of
wolf-in-sheep's-clothing in the shape of singing or drawing-master--than
Mr. Sheldon seemed to be in these latter days. Even those pleasant walks
in Kensington Gardens, which had been one of the regular occupations of
the day, were now forbidden. Mr. Sheldon did not like that his daughter
should walk in public with no better protector than Diana Paget.
"There is something disreputable in two girls marching about those
gardens together according to my ideas," said this ultra-refined
stockbroker, one morning at the family breakfast-table. "I don't like to
see my stepdaughter do anything I should forbid my own daughter to do.
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