so far,
he stopped and said no more.

"When we first sat down together here, I had no thought of making this
appeal, no idea of talking to you as I have talked," pursued the other.
"My words have escaped me, as I told you, almost unawares; you must
make allowances for them and for me. I cannot expect others, Monsieur
Lomaque, to appreciate and understand my feelings for Rose. We two have
lived alone in the world together; father, mother, kindred, they all
died years since, and left us. I am so much older than my sister that I
have learned to feel toward her more as a father than as a brother.
All my life, all my dearest hopes, all my highest expectations, have
centered in her. I was past the period of my boyhood when my mother put
my little child sister's hand in mine, and said to me on her death-bed:
'Louis, be all to her that I have been, for she has no one left to look
to but you.' Since then the loves and ambitions of other men have not
been my loves or my ambitions. Sister Rose--as we all used to call her
in those past days, as I love to call her still--Sister Rose has
been the one aim, the one happiness, the one precious trust, the one
treasured reward, of all my life. I have lived in this poor house,
in this dull retirement, as in a paradise, because Sister Rose--my
innocent, happy, bright-faced Eve--has lived here with me. Even if the
husband of her choice had been the husband of mine, the necessity of
parting with her would have been the hardest, the bitterest of trials.
As it is, thinking what I think, dreading what I dread, judge what my
feelings must be on the eve of her marriage; and know why, and with what
object, I made the appeal which surprised you a moment since, but which
cannot surprise you now. Speak if you will--I can say no more." He
sighed bitterly; his head dropped on his breast, and the hand which he
had extended to Lomaque trembled as he withdrew it and let it fall at
his side.

The land-steward was not a man accustomed to hesitate, but he hesitated
now. He was not usually at a loss for phrases in which to express
himself, but he stammered at the very outset of his reply. "Suppose I
answered," he began, slowly; "suppose I told you that you wronged him,
would my testimony really be strong enough to shake opinions, or rather
presumptions, which have been taking firmer and firmer hold of you for
months and months past? Suppose, on the other hand, that my master had
his little" (Lomaque hesitate