"Am I to tell you the truth or a lie?"
"Not a lie, certainly. I will not ask for the truth if the truth be unpalatable to you."
"It is unpalatable;—but yet I might as well tell it you. I wrote to ask him to come and see me, because I love him so dearly."
"Oh, Imogene!"
"It is the truth."
"Did you tell him so?"
"No; I told him nothing. I merely said, that, if this match was over between him and that girl of Sir Thomas Tringle, then he might come and see me again. That was all that I said. His letter was very much longer, but yet it did not say much. However, he is to come, and I am prepared to renew our engagement should he declare that he is willing to do so."
"What will Mudbury say?"
"I do not care very much what he says. I do not know that I am bound to care. If I have resolved to entangle myself with a long engagement, and Mr. Houston is willing to do the same, I do not think that my brother should interfere. I am my own mistress, and am dealing altogether with my own happiness."
"Imogene, we have discussed this so often before."