The Baron's whim
of transferring his estate to the distant heir-male, instead of his own
daughter, was therefore likely to be an insurmountable obstacle to his
entertaining any serious thoughts of Rose Bradwardine. Indeed, Fergus's
brain was a perpetual workshop of scheme and intrigue, of every possible
kind and description; while, like many a mechanic of more ingenuity than
steadiness, he would often unexpectedly, and without any apparent motive,
abandon one plan and go earnestly to work upon another, which was either
fresh from the forge of his imagination or had at some former period been
flung aside half finished. It was therefore often difficult to guess what
line of conduct he might finally adopt upon any given occasion.
Although Flora was sincerely attached to her brother, whose high energies
might indeed have commanded her admiration even without the ties which
bound them together, she was by no means blind to his faults, which she
considered as dangerous to the hopes of any woman who should found her
ideas of a happy marriage in the peaceful enjoyment of domestic society
and the exchange of mutual and engrossing affection.
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