"If I had not believed it I should not have said it."
"But how could you believe it? Has he dared to talk to you of love?"
"Do you think he could forget himself so far as to do such a thing? or if he did, do you think I could forget myself so far as to listen to him? Surely, sir, you forget of whom and to whom you are speaking."
"Forgive me: I spoke from pique. And so, Helen, you think I do not love you?"
"Not as you did, certainly: but I excuse you. I know grief has changed me; and it had been better for me to have died, if it had so pleased God, when my poor child died."
"Helen! dearest! do not talk thus, I cannot bear it!" he exclaimed, clasping me to his heart; and though I then wept even more abundantly than before, I wept on his bosom, and all my sorrows were for awhile forgotten.
The next morning Pendarves told me he should certainly breakfast with me; but he must leave me soon to partake of a late breakfast at Oswald Lodge, as he had promised to go with the party to call on a family, with whom they were to arrange some private theatricals.
"And are you to engage in them?"
"Oh! to be sure: it will not be the first time of my acting."
"And will Lady Martindale act?"