"Why not to-day, Clara?"
"I shall be better alone. I have so many things to think of."
"I know well that it would be better that you should not be alone,—much better. But I will not press it. I cannot insist with you as another woman would."
"You are wrong there; quite wrong. I would be led by you sooner than by any woman living. What other woman is there to whom I would listen for a moment?" As she said this, even in the depth of her sorrow she thought of Lady Aylmer, and strengthened herself in her resolution to rebel against her lover's mother. Then she continued, "I wish I knew my cousin Mary,—Mary Belton; but I have never seen her."
"Is she nice?"
"So Will tells me; and I know that what he says must be true,—even about his sister."
"Will, Will! You are always thinking of your cousin Will. If he be really so good he will show it now."
"How can he show it? What can he do?"
"Does he not inherit all the property?"
"Of course he does. And what of that? When I say that I have no friend I am not thinking of my poverty."