"And why don't you take that other person?"
"Because I cannot trust his love; that is why. It is not very kind of you, opening my sores afresh, when I am trying to heal yours."
"Oh, Lily, am I unkind,—unkind to you, who have been so generous to me?"
"I'll forgive you all that and a deal more if you will only listen to me and try to take my advice. Because this major of yours does a generous thing, which is for the good of you both,—the infinite good of both of you,—you are to emulate his generosity by doing a thing which will be for the good of neither of you. That is about it. Yes, it is, Grace. You cannot doubt that he has been meaning this for some time past; and of course, if he looks upon you as his own,—and I daresay, if the whole truth is to be told, he does—"
"But I am not his own."
"Yes, you are, in one sense; you have just said so with a great deal of energy. And if it is so,—let me see, where was I?"
"Oh, Lily, you need not mind where you were."
"But I do mind, and I hate to be interrupted in my arguments. Yes, just that. If he saw his cow sick, he'd try to doctor the cow in her sickness. He sees that you are sick, and of course he comes to your relief."
"I am not Major Grantly's cow."
"Yes, you are."