' It is a great temptation: I hardly know why I
said 'no' at all; surprise, perhaps--or to please you, pretty one."
Rose groaned: "Are you then worth so little that you would throw
yourself away on a man who does not love you, nor want you, and is quite
as happy single?"
"No; not happy; he is only stout-hearted and good, and therefore
content; and he is a character that it would be easy--in short, I feel
my power here: I could make that man happy; he has nobody to write to
even, when he is away--poor fellow!"
"I shall lose all patience," cried Rose; "you are at your old trick,
thinking of everybody but yourself: I let you do it in trifles, but I
love you too well to permit it when the happiness of your whole life is
at stake. I must be satisfied on one point, or else this marriage shall
never take place: just answer me this; if Camille Dujardin stood on one
side, and Monsieur Raynal on the other, and both asked your hand, which
would you take?"
"That will never be. Whose? Not his whom I despise. Esteem might ripen
into love, but what must contempt end in?"
This reply gave Rose great satisfaction.
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