Page:Stories Revived (3 volumes, London, Macmillan, 1885), Volume 3.djvu/14

Rh suddenly ringing in the air, but not from want of heart. "You have named it," he said.

"Well, then, I only pity you the more for your consistency. I can only entreat you again to rest content with what I have offered you. It's not such a bad substitute, Richard, as I understand it What my love might be I don't know—I couldn't answer for that; but of the kind of interest I take in you I am very sure. We both have our duties in this matter, and I have resolved to take a liberal view of mine. I might lose patience with you, you know, and turn away from you altogether—leave you alone with your dreams, and let you break your heart. But it's rather by seeing more of me than by seeing less that your feelings will change."

"You don't mean it! And yours?"

"I have no doubt they will change, too; not in kind, but in degree. The better I know you, I am sure, the better I shall like you. The better too you will like me. Don't turn your back upon me—I speak the truth. You will get to entertain a serious opinion of me—which I'm sure you haven't now, or you wouldn't talk of my making you mad. But you must be patient It's a singular fact that it takes longer to learn to live on rational terms with a woman than to fancy one adores her. A sense of madness is a very poor feeling to marry upon. You wish, of course, to leave off your idle life and your bad habits—you see I am so thoroughly your friend that I am not afraid of touching upon disagreeable facts, as I should be if I were your 'adored.' But you are