"I wasn't thinking about that. I didn't specially want you to write to me. What difference would it make?"
"But I should have felt that I owed it to your kindness and your—regard for me."
"My regard! What's the use of regard?"
"You are not going to quarrel with me, Will, because—because—because—. If you had really been my brother, as you once said you would be, you could not but have approved of what I have done."
"But I am not your brother."
"Oh, Will; that sounds so cruel!"
"I am not your brother, and I have no right to approve or disapprove."
"I will not say that I could make my engagement with Captain Aylmer dependent on your approval. It would not be fair to him to do so, and it would put me into a false position."
"Have I asked you to make any such absurd sacrifice?"
"Listen to me, Will. I say that I could not do that. But, short of that, there is nothing I would not do to satisfy you. I think so much of your judgment and goodness, and so very much of your affection; I love you so dearly, that—. Oh, Will, say a kind word to me!"