Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/66

56 "'No, but I can no longer doubt it. Do you not see how pointedly kind and affectionate she is? And she knows the utmost extent of my poverty, and cares nothing about it! She knows all the folly and all the wickedness of my former life, and is not afraid to trust me—and my rank and title are no allurements to her; for them, she utterly disregards. She is the most generous, high-minded being that can be conceived of. She will save me, body and soul, from destruction. Already, she has ennobled me in my own estimation, and made me three times better, wiser, greater than I was. Oh! if I had but known her before, how much degradation and misery I should have been spared! But what have I done to deserve so magnificent a creature?'

"And the cream of the jest," continued Mr. Huntingdon, laughing, "is that the artful minx loves nothing about him, but his title and pedigree, and 'that delightful old family seat.'"

"How do you know?' said I.