Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/312

302 to be able to claim kindred with the lady you mention."

He now cunningly glanced at my face. "Perhaps, sir, you mean to—"

I guessed what was coming, and checked the impertinent conjecture with,—"Perhaps you'll be so good as to be quiet a moment. I'm busy."

"Busy, sir?"

"Yes, in my mind, and don't want to have my cogitations disturbed."

"Indeed, sir!"

You will see that my disappointment had not very greatly affected me, or I should not have been able so quietly to bear with the fellow's impertinence. The fact is I thought it as well—nay better, all things considered, that I should not see her to-day,—that I should have time to compose my mind for the interview—to prepare it for a heavier disappointment, after the intoxicating delight experienced by this sudden removal of my former apprehensions; not to mention that, after travelling