"That's wishing him to be dead, whoever he is."
"Yes. Why should he persecute me? I mean that man we were staying with at Bragton."
"Mr. Morton?"
"Of course I do. Don't you remember your asking me about him, and my telling you that I was not engaged to him?"
"I remember that."
"Mamma and this horrid old Duchess here want me to marry him. They've got an idea that he is going to be ambassador at Pekin or something very grand, and they're at me day and night."
"You needn't take him unless you like him."
"They do make me so miserable!" And then she leaned heavily upon his arm. He was a man who could not stand such pressure as this without returning it. Though he were on the precipice, and though he must go over, still he could not stand it. "You remember that night after the ball?"
"Indeed I do."
"And you too had asked me whether I cared for that horrid man."