Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/192

182 that, if you married her, your home would be rayless and comfortless; and it would break your heart at last to find yourself united to one so wholly incapable of sharing your tastes, feelings, and ideas—so utterly destitute of sensibility, good feeling, and true nobility of soul."

"Have you done?" asked my companion quietly.

"Yes;—I know you hate me for my impertinence, but I don't care if it only conduces to preserve you from that fatal mistake."

"Well!" returned he, with a rather wintry smile—"I'm glad you have overcome, or forgotten your own afflictions so far as to be able to study so deeply the affairs of others, and trouble your head, so unnecessarily, about the fancied or possible calamities of their future life."

We parted—somewhat coldly again; but still we did not cease to be friends; and my well-meant warning, though it might have been more judiciously delivered, as well as more