During their father's lifetime she was petted and allowed her own way.
Hillsborough, odious to her brother, was, naturally, very attractive to
her, and she often rode into the town to shop and chat with her friends,
and often stayed a day or two in it, especially with a Mrs. Manton, wife
of a wealthy manufacturer.

Guy merely sneered at her, her friends, and her tastes, till he suddenly
discovered that she had formed an attachment to one of the obnoxious
class, Mr. James Little, a great contract builder. He was too shocked at
first to vent his anger. He turned pale, and could hardly speak; and the
poor girl's bosom began to quake.

But Guy's opposition went no further than cold aversion to the
intimacy--until his father died. Then, though but a year older than
Edith, he assumed authority and, as head of the house, forbade the
connection. At the same time he told her he should not object, under the
circumstances, to her marrying Dr. Amboyne, a rising physician, and
a man of good family, who loved her sincerely, and had shown his love
plainly before ever Mr. Little was heard of.

Edith tried to soften her brother; but he was resolute, and said Raby
Hall should never be an appendage to a workshop. Sooner than that, he
would settle it on his cousin Richard, a gentleman he abhorred, and
never called, either to his face or behind his back, by any other name
than "Dissolute Dick."

Then Edith became very unhappy, and temporized more or less, till her
lover, who had shown considerable forbearance, lost patience at last,
and said she must either have no spirit, or no true affection for him.