"
"My dear Tom, I may as well say it now, for what I ought to say is
as clear as that moon in the sky. I can NEVER love you as a wife
ought to love her husband."
"Oh, Miss Catharine! you despise me, you despise me! Why in God's
name?" Tom rose above himself, and became such another self that
Catharine was amazed and half staggered. "Why in God's name did He
make you and me after such a fashion, that you are the one person in
the world able to save me, and you cannot! Why did He do this! Why
did He put me where I saw you every day and torment me with the hope
of you, knowing that you would have nothing to do with me! He
maimed my father and made him a beggar: He prevented me from
learning what would have made me fit for you, and then He drove me
to worship you. Do not say 'never'!"
They were close to her father's door at the Terrace. She stopped,
looked at him sadly, but decisively, straight in the face, and said
-
"Never! never! Never your lover, but your best friend for ever,"
and she opened the gate and disappeared.
CHAPTER XIII
Mr. and Mrs. Furze were not disturbed because their daughter was
late. A neighbour told them that she had gone to the Rectory with
Mr. and Mrs. Cardew, and Mrs. Furze was pleased that Eastthorpe
should behold her daughter apparently on intimate terms with a
clergyman so well known and so respectable. But it was ten o'clock,
and they wished to be in bed.
Pages:
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166