‘Not unless you and Mary asked me.’

‘And you wouldn’t if we did.  How could you?’

’What do you mean, Will?  It seems as though you were almost savage to me.’

‘Am I?  Well I feel savage, but not to you.’

‘Nor to any one, I hope, belonging to me.’  She knew that it was all coming; that the whole subject of her future life must now be discussed; and she began to fear that the discussion might not be easy.  But she did not know how to give it a direction.  She feared that he would become angry, and yet she knew not why.  He had accepted his own rejection tranquilly, and could hardly take it as an offence that she should now be engaged to Captain Aylmer.

‘Mr Green has told me’, said he, ‘that you are going to be married.’

‘How could Mr Green have known?’

‘He did know at least I suppose he knew, for he told me.’

‘How very odd.’

‘I suppose it is true?’ Clara did not make any immediate answer, and then he repeated the question.  ‘I suppose it is true?’

‘It is true that I am engaged.’

‘To Captain Aylmer?’

’Yes; to Captain Aylmer.  You know that I had known him very long.  I hope that you are not angry with me because I did not write and tell you.  Strange as it may seem, seeing that you had heard it already, it is not a week yet since it was settled; and had I written to you, I could only have addressed my letter to you here.’

’I wasn’t thinking about that.  I didn’t specially want you to write to me.  What difference would it make?’

’But I should have felt that I owed it to your kindness and your regard for me.’

‘My regard!  What’s the use of regard?’

’You are not going to quarrel with me, Will, because because because .  If you had really been my brother, as you once said you would be, you could not but have approved of what I have done.’

‘But I am not your brother.’

‘Oh, Will; that sounds so cruel!’

‘I am not your brother, and I have no right to approve or disapprove.’

’I will not say that I could make my engagement with Captain Aylmer dependent on your approval.  It would not be fair to him to do so, and it would put me into a false position.’

’ Have I asked you to make any such absurd sacrifice?’

’Listen to me, Will.  I say that I could not do that.  But, short of that, there is nothing I would not do to satisfy you.  I think so much of your judgment and goodness, and so very much of your affection; I love you so dearly, that Oh, Will, say a kind word to me!’

’A kind word; yes, but what sort of kindness?

‘You must know that Captain Aylmer’

’Don’t talk to me of Captain Aylmer.  Have I said anything against him?  Have I ventured to make any objection?  Of course, I know his superiority to myself.  I know that he is a man of the world, and that I am not; that he is educated, and that I am ignorant; that he has a position, and that I have none; that he has much to offer, and that I have nothing.  Of course, I see the difference; but that does not make me comfortable.’