’And if I could have thought that this place would be your home when I am gone, it would have made me very happy very happy.’

She now came and stood close to him and took his hand.  ’I hope, papa, you do not make yourself uneasy about me.  I shall do very well.  Fm sure you can’t want me to go away and leave you.’

’How will you do very well?  I’m sure I don’t know.  And if your aunt Winterfield means to provide for you, it would only be kind in her to let me know it, so that I might not have the anxiety always on my mind.’

Clara knew well enough what was to be the disposition of her aunt’s property, but she could not tell her father of that now.  She almost felt that it was her duty to do so, but she could not bring herself to do it.  She could only beg him not to be anxious on her behalf, making vague assurances that she would do very well.  ’And are you determined not to change your mind about Will?’ he said at last.

‘I shall not change my mind about that, papa, certainly,’ she answered.  Then he turned away from her, and she saw that he was displeased.

When alone, she was forced to ask herself why it was that she was so certain.  Alas! there could in truth be no doubt on that subject in her own mind.  When she sat down, resolved to give herself an answer, there was no doubt.  She could not love her cousin, Will Belton, because her heart belonged to Captain Aylmer.

But she knew that she had received nothing in exchange for her heart.  He had been kind to her on that journey to Taunton, when the agony arising from her brother’s death had almost crushed her.  He had often been kind to her on days before that so kind, so soft in his manners, approaching so nearly to the little tenderness of incipient love-making, that the idea of regarding him as her lover had of necessity forced itself upon her.  But in nothing had he gone beyond those tendernesses, which need not imperatively be made to mean anything, though they do often mean so much.  It was now two years since she had first thought that Captain Aylmer was the most perfect gentleman she knew, and nearly two years since Mrs Winterfield had expressed to her a hope that Captain Aylmer might become her husband.  She had replied that such a thing was impossible as any girl would have replied; and had in consequence treated Captain Aylmer with all the coolness which she had been able to assume whenever she was in company with him in her aunt’s presence.  Nor was it natural to her to be specially gracious to a man under such trying circumstances, even when no Mrs Winterfield was there to behold.  And so things had gone on.  Captain Aylmer had now and again made himself very pleasant to her at certain trying periods of joy or trouble almost more than pleasant.  But nothing had come of it, and Clara had told herself that Captain Aylmer had no special feeling in her favour.  She had told herself this, ever since that journey together from Perivale to Taunton; but never till now had she confessed to herself what was her own case.