there."

"There need be no question of Aylmer Park."

"There shall be none!"

"But, so much being allowed, you will be my wife?"

"No, Captain Aylmer;--no. I cannot be your wife. Do not press it
further; you must know that on such a subject I would think much
before I answered you. I have thought much, and I know that I am
right."

"And your promised word is to go for nothing?"

"If it will comfort you to say so, you may say it. If you do not
perceive that the mistake made between us has been as much your
mistake as mine, and has injured me more than it has injured you, I
will not remind you of it,--will never remind you of it after this."

"But there has been no mistake,--and there shall be no injury."

"Ah, Captain Aylmer! you do not understand; you cannot understand.
I would not for worlds reproach you; but do you think I suffered
nothing from your mother?"

"And must I pay for her sins?"

"There shall be no paying, no punishment, and no reproaches. There
shall be none at least from me. But,--do not think that I speak in
anger or in pride,--I will not marry into Lady Aylmer's family."

"This is too bad,--too bad! After all that is past, it is too bad!"

"What can I say? Would you advise me to do that which would make us
both wretched?"

"It would not make me wretched. It would make me happy. It would
satisfy me altogether."

"It cannot be, Captain Aylmer. It cannot be. When I speak to you in
that way, will you not let it be final?"

He paused a moment before he spoke again, and then he turned sharp
upon her. "Tell me this, Clara; do you love me? Have you ever loved
me?" She did not answer him, but stood there, listening quietly to
his accusations. "You have never loved me, and yet you have allowed
yourself to say that you did. Is not that true?" Still she did not
answer. "I ask you whether that is not true?" But though he asked
her, and paused for an answer, looking the while full into her face,
yet she did not speak. "And now I suppose you will become your
cousin's wife?" he said. "It will suit you to change, and to say that
you love him."

Then at last she spoke. "I did not think that you would have treated
me in this way, Captain Aylmer! I did not expect that you would
insult me!"

"I have not insulted you."

"But your manner to me makes my task easier than I could have hoped
it to be. You asked me whether I ever loved you? I once thought that
I did so; and so thinking, told you, without