“I believe I did. But, uncle—”
“And I have done as you desired me; and now, Fanny, that I have done so—now that I have fully explained to him what you taught me to believe were your wishes on the subject, will you tell me—for I really think your aunt must have misunderstood you—what it is that you wish me to do?”
“Why, uncle, you pointed out—and it was very true then, that my fortune was not sufficient to enable Lord Ballindine to keep up his rank. It is different now, and I am very, very sorry that it is so; but it is different now, and I feel that I ought not to reject Lord Ballindine, because I am so much richer than I was when he—when he proposed to me.”
“Then it’s merely a matter of feeling with you, and not of affection? If I understand you, you are afraid that you should be thought to have treated Lord Ballindine badly?”
“It’s not only that—” And then she paused for a few moments, and added, “I thought I could have parted with him, when you made me believe that I ought to do so, but I find I cannot.”
“You mean that you love him?” and the earl looked very black at his niece. He intended to frighten her out of her resolution, but she quietly answered,
“Yes, uncle, I do.”
“And you want me to tell him so, after having banished him from my house?”
Fanny’s eyes again shot fire at the word “banished”, but she answered, very quietly, and even with a smile,
“No, uncle; but I want you to ask him here again. I might tell him the rest myself.”