Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 1.djvu/288

276 not only ought to be founded on approbation, but they will and must be so: for without approving I cannot love. It is needless to say I ought to be able to respect and honour the man I marry as well as love him, for I cannot love him without. So set your mind at rest."

"I hope it may be so," answered she.

"I know it is so," persisted I.

"You have not been tried yet, Helen: we can but hope," said she, in her cold, cautious way.

I was vexed at her incredulity; but I am not sure her doubts were entirely without sagacity; I fear I have found it much easier to remember her advice than to profit by it—Indeed, I have sometimes been led to question the soundness of her doctrines on those subjects. Her counsels may be good, as far as they go—in the main points, at least;—but there are some things she has overlooked in her calculations. I wonder if she was ever in love.

I commenced my career—or my first