Fairfax?"
"The sublime right of loving you. To my mind that constitutes a kind of
moral ownership. And to see you flirting with that fellow Granger, and
yet have to hold my peace! But, thank God, all pretences are done with. I
recognize the event of to-day as an interposition of Providence. As soon as
I can decently do so, I shall tell Lady Geraldine the truth."
"You will not break your engagement--at such a time--when she has double
need of your love?" cried Clarissa indignantly.
She saw the situation from the woman's point of view, and it was of
Geraldine Challoner's feelings she thought at this crisis. George Fairfax
weighed nothing in the scale against that sorrowing daughter. And yet she
loved him.
"My love she never had, and never can have; nor do I believe that honour
compels me to make myself miserable for life. Of course I shall not disturb
her in the hour of her grief by any talk about our intended marriage; but,
so soon as I can do so with kindness, I shall let her know the real state
of my feelings. She is too generous to exact any sacrifice from me."
"And you will make her miserable for life, perhaps?"
"I am not afraid of that. I tell you, Clarissa, it is not in her cold proud
nature to care much for any man. We can invent some story to account for
the rupture, which will save her womanly pride. The world can be told that
it is she who has broken the engagement: all that will be easily settled.
Pages:
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260