ccustomed to me, and your objections would wear away. You know what
your father and mother wish concerning us. Does their wish not weigh
with you?"

"No," said Dolly very quietly. "This is my affair, not theirs."

"It is their affair so far as your interests are involved. And I do not
wish to praise myself; but you know they think that those interests
would be secured by a marriage with me. And I believe I could make you
happy, Dolly."

Dolly shook her head. "How could you?" she said. "We belong to two
opposite parties, and are following two different lines of life. You
would not like my way, and I should not like yours. How could either of
us be happy?"

"Even granting all that," said Lawrence, "why should you not bear with
my peculiarities, and I with yours, and neither be the worse? That is
very frequently done."

"Is it? I do not think it ought to be done."

"Let us prove that it can be. I will never interfere with you, Dolly."

"Yes, you would," said Dolly, dimpling all over again. "Do you think
you would make up your mind to have no wine in your cellar or on your
table? Take that for one thing. I should have no wine on mine."

"That's a crotchet of yours," said he, smiling at her: he thought if
_this_ were all, the thing might be managed.

"That is only one thing, Mr. St. Leger," Dolly went on very gravely
now. "I should be unfashionable in a hundred ways, and you would not
like that. I should spend money on objects and for causes that you
would not care about nor agree to. I am telling you all this to
reconcile you to doing without me."

"Your refusal is absolute, then?"

"Yes."

"You would not bring up these extraneous things, Dolly, if you had any
love for me."

"I do not know why that should make any difference. It might make it
hard."

"Then you _have_ no love for me?"

"I am afraid not," said Dolly gently. "Not what you mean. And without
that, you would not wish for a different answer from me."

"Yes, I would!" said he. "All that would come; but you know your own
business best."

Dolly thought she did, and the proposition remained uncontroverted.
Therewith the discourse died; and the miles that remained were made in
unsocial silence. Dolly feared she had given some pain, but doubted it
could not be very great; and she was glad to have the explanation over.
Perhaps the pain was more than she knew, although Lawrence certainly
was not a desperate wooer; nevertheless, he was disappointed,