"Poetry can be so delightful," Ella said and took a sip of her tea. What she was thinking, though, was how dreadfully boring Charles was and how she didn't understand why Lucas (who must have been at least three times more interesting) would be eager to see him. Political reasons, she decided. She turned her attention to Olivia then and smiled brightly. "If you are convinced Lucas would not deny us the chance to sit for him, then you must ask him the next time you see him. It will be fun!"
Tired of standing for the time being, Ella took a seat and sipped from her cup. She really did enjoy discussing men, no matter how interesting they were.
"Now, what are we going to do with ourselves? All of us beautiful, young, agreeable, and entirely unmarried," she said and giggled. With her father gone everything was going to change for her, and she hoped it would do so rapidly. Her mother, even in her mourning fits, had babbled on about Ella coming out, again, since she hadn't had any suitors in the last two years. Ella hadn't been phased by the fact that her young fiance, whom her father was going to force her to marry, running off had made her seem a bit less worthy of a suitor's interest. People running off seemed to be a sort of pattern in her life and why on earth would she have wanted to be tied down at thirteen anyway? Fifteen, on the other hand, was a much more agreeable marrying age in her eyes. "Mother is finally concerned at my lack of any suitors. I think it is good for her to put her mind on something other than Father's passing. Only I'm not sure that much will come of it."