"That I have been engaged to Captain Aylmer."
"But you are not engaged to him now."
"No—I am not."
"And there can be no renewal there, I suppose?"
"Oh, no!"
"Not even for my brother would I say a word if I thought—"
"No;—there is nothing of that; but—. If you cannot understand, I do not think that I can explain it." It seemed to Clara that her cousin, in her anxiety for her brother, did not conceive that a woman, even if she could suddenly transfer her affections from one man to another, could not bring herself to say that she had done so.
"I must write to him to-day," said Mary, "and I must give him some answer. Shall I tell him that he had better not come here till you are gone?"
"That will perhaps be best," said Clara.
"Then he will never come at all."