Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/33

Rh "Oh, dear, no!" she exclaimed. "I shall probably be Lady Lowborough some day, and then you know, dear, I shall be in a capacity to enquire, 'Don't you envy me?"

"Henceforth, I shall envy no one," returned I.

"Indeed! Are you so happy then?" said she thoughtfully; and something very like a cloud of disappointment shadowed her face. "And does he love you—I mean, does he idolize you as much as you do him?" she added, fixing her eyes upon me with ill-disguised anxiety for the reply.

"I don't want to be idolized," I answered, "but I am well assured that he loves me more than anybody else in the world—as I do him."

"Exactly," said she with a nod. "I wish—" she paused.

"What do you wish?" asked I, annoyed at the vindictive expression of her countenance.

"I wish," returned she, with a short laugh, "that all the attractive points and desirable