Page:Elizabeth's Pretenders.djvu/76

Rh who has almost offered herself to him (it is too extraordinary what women will do!). He says he would rather do anything than sell himself. He is so high-minded!"

"Don't you think he is mistaken, aunt, in fancying that he cares about me? That is the thing."

"He does nothing but talk about you, my dear. It is quite fatiguing."

Elizabeth shook her head. "I should be wretched, if I married him, to find, by-and-by, that he had been mistaken; to see him attracted by other women, and to know that my influence over him was gone. I should be jealously hungry for my husband's love. No divided empire would satisfy me."

"All of which means that you are already a little bit in love, Bessie;" and Mrs. Shaw laughed lightly, though she avoided her niece's searching eyes.

"I don't know. Perhaps it does. Sometimes I think it does. I have seen so little of men that I scarcely know if what I feel at present for Colonel Wybrowe is love or not. But I believe I could grow to care for him—really to care, I mean—if I felt sure about him—quite sure."

"He cannot hang on here for ever," said Mrs. Shaw, with a little sharpness of tone. "It is not fair to him, and it would be still more unfair to you. It would naturally keep other men away. Lord Robert would have proposed if he had not been called away; but you know very well what that means. I am very glad he came, that you might contrast the two. Such a dried-up piece of humanity! Those two girls were just dying of envy of you for capturing Colonel Wybrowe; that is