"
"I wish, Austin, for your poor wife's sake, you'd let me tell my husband
who you are. This concealment seems so hard upon her, as well as a kind of
wrong to Daniel. I can do so little to serve her, and I might do so much,
if I could own her as my sister-in-law. I don't think Daniel could help
liking you, if he knew everything."
"Drop that, if you please, Clarissa," said Austin, with a darkening
countenance. "I have told you that your husband and I can never be friends,
and I mean it. I don't want to be degraded by any intercession of yours.
_That's_ a little too much even for me. It suits my purpose well enough to
accept Mr. Granger's commissions; and of course it's very agreeable to see
you; but the matter must end there."
Miss Granger returned at this moment; but had she stayed away for an hour,
Clarissa could scarcely have pressed the question farther. In the old days
when they had been boy and girl together, Austin seven years her senior,
Clarissa had always been just a little afraid of her brother; and she was
afraid of him now.
The very fact of his somewhat dependent position made her more fearful
of offending him. She was anxious about his future anxious too about his
present mode of life; but she dared not question closely upon either
subject. Once, when she had ventured to ask him about his plan of life, he
answered in his careless off-hand way,--
"My dearest Clary, I have no plans.
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