And, indeed, with differences in the shades, Hugh and Dorothy were of the same nature.

They were possessed of sweeter tempers than their aunt and sister, but they were filled with the same eager readiness to believe themselves to be right,--and to own themselves to others to be wrong, when they had been constrained to make such confession to themselves.

The chances of life, and something probably of inner nature, had made Dorothy mild and obedient; whereas, in regard to Hugh, the circumstances of his life and disposition had made him obstinate and self-reliant.

But in all was to be found the same belief in self,--which amounted almost to conceit,--the same warmth of affection, and the same love of justice.
When Miss Stanbury had again perused the correspondence, and had come to see, dimly, how things had gone at Nuncombe Putney,--when the conviction came upon her mind that Priscilla had entertained a horror as to the coming of this Colonel equal to that which she herself had felt,--when her imagination painted to her all that her niece had suffered, her heart was softened somewhat.

She had declared to Dorothy that pitch, if touched, would certainly defile; and she had, at first, intended to send the same opinion, couched in very forcible words, to her correspondents at the Clock House.