第115章

'I thought he did once; and if he has come here to see me, I suppose he does still.'

'If that be the case, and you also love him--'

'I do. I make no mystery about that to you. I do love him with all my heart. I love him today, now that I believe him to be here, and that Isuppose I shall see him, perhaps this very afternoon. And I loved him yesterday, when I thought that I should never see him again. I do love him. I do. I love him so well that I will never do him an injury.'

'That being so, if he makes you an offer you are bound to accept it. Ido not think that you have an alternative.'

'I have an alternative, and I shall use it. Why don't you take my cousin John?'

'Because I like somebody else better. If you have got as good a reason, I won't say another word to you.'

'And why don't you take that other person?'

'Because I cannot trust his love; that is why. It is not very kind of you, opening my sores afresh, when I am trying to heal yours.'

'Oh, Lily, I am unkind--unkind to you, who have been so generous to me?'

'I'll forgive you all that and a deal more if you will only listen to me and try to take my advice. Because this major of yours does a generous thing, which is for the good of you both--the infinite good of both of you--you are to emulate his generosity by doing a thing which will be for the good of neither of you. That is about it. Yes, it is, Grace. You cannot doubt that he has been meaning this for some time past; and of course, if he looks upon you as his own--and I daresay, if the whole truth is to be told, he does--'

'But I am not his own.'

'Yes you are, in one sense; you have just said so with a great deal of energy. And if it is so--let me see, where was I?'

'Oh, Lily, you need not mind where you were.'

'But I do mind, and I hate to be interrupted in my arguments. Yes, just that. If he saw his cow sick, he'd try to doctor the cow in her sickness. He sees that you are sick, and of course he comes to your relief.'

'I am not Major Grantly's cow.'

'Yes, you are.'

'Nor his dog, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his, except--except, Lily, the dearest friend that he has on the face of the earth. He cannot have a friend that will go no further for him than Iwill. He will never know how far I will go to serve him. You don't know his people. Nor do I know them. But I know what they are. His sister is married to a marquis.'

'What has that to do with it?' said Lily, sharply. 'If she were married to an archduke, what difference would that make?'

'And they are proud people--all of them--and rich; and they live with high persons in the world.'

'I didn't care though they lived with the royal family, and had the Prince of Wales for their bosom friend. It only shows how much better he is than they are.'

'But think of what my family is--how we are situated. When my father was simply poor I did not care about it, because he has been born and bred a gentleman. But now he is disgraced. Yes, Lily, he is. I am bound to say so, at any rate to myself, when I am thinking of Major Grantly;and I will not carry that disgrace into a family which would feel it so keenly as they would do.' Lily, however, went on with her arguments, and was still arguing when they turned the corner of the lane, and came upon Lily's uncle and the major himself.