"I have thought it better not to mention it. Why should I mention it?"
"If you think that it would pain me, you are mistaken. It pains me more that you should think that I could not bear it. He was welcome to his wife."
"I know you wish him well, Clary."
"Well! Oh, yes, I wish him well. No doubt he will be happy with her. She is fit for him, and I was not. He did quite right."
"He is not half so good as his brother," said Patience.
"Certainly he is not so good as his brother. Men, of course, will be different. But it is not always the best man that one likes the best. It ought to be so, perhaps."
"I know which I like the best," said Patience. "Oh, Clary, if you could but bring yourself to love him."
"How is one to change like that? And I do not know that he cares for me now."
"Ah;—I think he cares for you."
"Why should he? Is a man to be sacrificed for always because a girl will not take him? His heart is changed. He takes care to show me so when he comes here. I am glad that it should be changed. Dear Patty, if papa would but come and live at home, I should want nothing else."