Part 9 (1/2)

”And intimately?”

”Very intimately. She is our only neighbour; and her being here has certainly been a great comfort to me. It is sad not having some woman near one that one can speak to;--and then, I really do like her very much.”

”No doubt it's all right.”

”Yes; it's all right,” said Clara. After that there was nothing more said about Mrs. Askerton, and Belton began his work. They had gone from the cottage, across the park, away from the house, up to a high rock which stood boldly out of the ground, from whence could be seen the sea on one side, and on the other a far tract of country almost away to the moors. And when they reached this spot they seated themselves. ”There,” said Clara, ”I consider this to be the prettiest spot in England.”

”I haven't seen all England,” said Belton.

”Don't be so matter-of-fact, Will. I say it's the prettiest in England, and you can't contradict me.”

”And I say you're the prettiest girl in England, and you can't contradict me.”

This annoyed Clara, and almost made her feel that her paragon of a cousin was not quite so perfect as she had represented him to be. ”I see,” she said, ”that if I talk nonsense I'm to be punished.”

”Is it a punishment to you to know that I think you very handsome?”

he said, turning round and looking full into her face.

”It is disagreeable to me--very, to have any such subject talked about at all. What would you think if I began to pay you foolish personal compliments?”

”What I say isn't foolish; and there's a great difference. Clara, I love you better than all the world put together.”

She now looked at him; but still she did not believe it. It could not be that after all her boastings she should have made so gross a blunder. ”I hope you do love me,” she said; ”indeed, you are bound to do so, for you promised that you would be my brother.”

”But that will not satisfy me now, Clara. Clara, I want to be your husband.”

”Will!” she exclaimed.

”Now you know it all; and if I have been too sudden, I must beg your pardon.”

”Oh, Will, forget that you have said this. Do not go on until everything must be over between us.”

”Why should anything be over between us? Why should it be wrong in me to love you?”

”What will papa say?”

”Mr. Amedroz knows all about it already, and has given me his consent. I asked him directly I had made up my own mind, and he told me that I might go to you.”

”You have asked papa? Oh dear, oh dear, what am I to do?”

”Am I so odious to you then?” As he said this he got up from his seat and stood before her. He was a tall, well-built, handsome man, and he could a.s.sume a look and mien that were almost n.o.ble when he was moved as he was moved now.

”Odious! Do you not know that I have loved you as my cousin--that I have already learned to trust you as though you were really my brother? But this breaks it all.”

”You cannot love me then as my wife?”

”No.” She p.r.o.nounced the monosyllable alone, and then he walked away from her as though that one little word settled the question for him, now and for ever. He walked away from her, perhaps a distance of two hundred yards, as though the interview was over, and he were leaving her. She, as she saw him go, wished that he would return that she might say some word of comfort to him. Not that she could have said the only word that would have comforted him. At the first blush of the thing, at the first sound of the address which he had made to her, she had been angry with him. He had disappointed her, and she was indignant. But her anger had already melted and turned itself to ruth. She could not but love him better, in that he had loved her so well; but yet she could not love him with the love which he desired.

But he did not leave her. When he had gone from her down the hill the distance that has been named, he turned back, and came up to her slowly. He had a trick of standing and walking with his thumbs fixed into the armholes of his waistcoat, while his large hands rested on his breast. He would always a.s.sume this att.i.tude when he was a.s.sured that he was right in his views, and was eager to carry some point at issue. Clara already understood that this att.i.tude signified his intention to be autocratic. He now came close up to her, and again stood over her, before he spoke. ”My dear,” he said, ”I have been rough and hasty in what I have said to you, and I have to ask you to pardon my want of manners.”