She had got up and followed him to the door, and he had taken her by the hand. "You shouldn't let your passion get the better of you in this way," she said; but the tone of her voice was very soft, and her eyes were full of love.
"I suppose not," said he.
"I can forgive him," said Captain Aylmer.
"D—— your forgiveness," said Will Belton. Then Clara dropped the hand and started back, and the door was shut, and Will Belton was gone.
"Your cousin seems to be a nice sort of young man," said Aylmer.
"Cannot you understand it all, Frederic, and pardon him?"
"I can pardon him easily enough; but one doesn't like men who are given to threatening. He's not the sort of man that I took him to be."
"Upon my word I think he's as nearly perfect as a man can be."
"Then you like men to swear at you, and to swagger like Bobadils, and to misbehave themselves, so that one has to blush for them if a servant chances to hear them. Do you really think that he has conducted himself to-day like a gentleman?"
"I know that he is a gentleman," said Clara.