elf from you unless
I could hope that you were not indifferent to me."

"Harry," said May, trying to calm her agitation; she had always before
called him Mr Harry, "I was thinking of your mother's proposed visit,
and afraid lest she should believe that I was the cause of your frequent
visits to Downside. Knowing, as I do, the pride of your family, I
feared that you might be induced to give up your visits here; and oh,
Harry, that we might be parted."

"No, no, May," exclaimed Harry, letting all his sober resolutions fly to
the wind, and pressing more lovingly her hand. "My parents, even should
they wish to do so, have no right to insist on my giving up one against
whom they cannot allege a single fault. The circumstance of your birth
ought not to be an impediment, and believe me, May, with all the desire
I possess to be an obedient son, I could not be influenced by such a
reason. I do not invite you to share poverty with me, for I have
already an ample income to support a wife, and as I need not ask my
father for a single shilling, I do not think he will have any just
reason to oppose my wishes."

"Harry," said May, "I own I love you, but I must not run any risk of
creating dissension between you and your parents. That and that alone
can prevent me from giving you my hand as you already have my heart. I
have been told of a sad history of a member of your own family, your
father's brother, who, against his parent's wishes, married a young lady
to whom they objected on account of her birth, and he was banished from
his home ever afterwards, living an exile in foreign lands. I should
fear that your father and mother would look upon me as an unfit match
for you, and discard you, should you persist in marrying me."

"You speak of my uncle Ronald," exclaimed Harry, "who married, I am
told, a very lovely girl, and simply because she could not trace her
pedigree to the same stock as the Castletons, my grandfather refused to
receive her as his daughter-in-law, and my uncle, rather than subject
her to the annoyance to which she might have been exposed at home, took
her abroad. Surely my father, after he has seen the consequence of the
harsh treatment his brother received, would not behave in the same way
to me; besides, you know, he is my father's eldest brother, and it is
not at all certain that he is dead, so that he may some day return and
claim the baronetcy and Texford, and if so, I shall be but a younger
brother