Granger's commonplace
remarks, just the same as usual, though the sound of another voice was in
her ear--the bitter passionate sound of words that had been almost curses.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXIV.
"IT MEANS ARDEN COURT."
The time went by, and Daniel Granger pursued his wooing, his tacit
undemonstrative courtship, with the quiet persistence of a man who meant
to win. He came to Mill Cottage almost every evening throughout the late
autumn and early winter months, and Clarissa was fain to endure his
presence and to be civil to him. She had no ground for complaint, no
opportunity for rebellion. His visits were not made ostensibly on her
account, though friends, neighbours, and servants knew very well why
he came, and had settled the whole business in their gossiping little
coteries. Nor did he take upon himself the airs of a lover. He was biding
his time, content to rejoice in the daily presence of the woman he loved;
content to wait till custom should have created a tie between them,
and till he could claim her for his wife by right of much patience and
fidelity. He had an idea that no woman, pure and true as he believed this
woman to be, could shut her heart against an honest man's love, if he were
only patient and faithful, single-minded and unselfish in his wooing.
George Fairfax kept his word. From the hour of that bitter parting he made
no sign of his existence to Clarissa Lovel.
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