"She does not hate me then?"
"Hate you! no;—she does not hate you. But there are so many degrees between hating and that kind of love which you want from her! You may be sure of this, that she so esteems you that your persistence cannot lessen you in her regard."
He was still pleading his case with the elder sister,—very uselessly indeed, as he was aware; but having fallen on the subject of his love it was impossible for him to change it for any other,—when Clarissa came into the room swinging her hat in her hand. She had been over at Miss Spooner's house and was full of Miss Spooner's woes and complaints. As soon as she had shaken hands with her lover and spoken the few words of courtesy which the meeting demanded of her, she threw herself into the affairs of Miss Spooner as though they were of vital interest. "She is determined to be unhappy, Patty, and it is no use trying to make her not so. She says that Jane robs her, which I don't believe is true, and that Sarah has a lover,—and why shouldn't Sarah have a lover? But as for curing her grievances, it would be the cruellest thing in the world. She lives upon her grievances. Something has happened to the chimney-pot, and the landlord hasn't sent a mason. She is revelling in her chimney-pot."
"Poor dear Miss Spooner," said Patience, getting up and leaving the room as though it were her duty to look at once after her old friend in the midst of these troubles.
Clarissa had not intended this. "She's asleep now," said Clarissa. But Patience went all the same. It might be that Miss Spooner would require to be watched in her slumbers. When Patience was gone Gregory Newton got up from his seat and walked to the window. He stood there for what seemed to be an endless number of seconds before he returned, and Clarissa had time to determine that she would escape. "I told Mary that I would go to her," she said, "you won't mind being left alone for a few minutes, Mr. Newton."
"Do not go just now, Clarissa."
"Only that I said I would," she answered, pleading that she must keep a promise which she had never made.
"Mary can spare you,—and I cannot. Mary is staying with you, and I shall be gone,—almost immediately. I go back to Newton to-morrow, and who can say when I shall see you again?"
"You will be coming up to London, of course."
"I am here now at any rate," he said smiling, "and will take what advantage of it I can. It is the old story, Clarissa;—so old that I know you must be sick of it."