"I hope that, upon the whole, you feel contented with your visit?" said Bernard to him, at last.
"Contented? Of course I do."
"That is easily said; and civility to me, perhaps, demands as much. But I know that you have, to some extent, been disappointed."
"Well; yes. I have been disappointed as regards money. It is of no use denying it."
"I should not mention it now, only that I want to know that you exonerate me."
"I have never blamed you;—neither you, nor anybody else; unless, indeed, it has been myself."
"You mean that you regret what you've done?"
"No; I don't mean that. I am too devotedly attached to that dear girl whom we have just left to feel any regret that I have engaged myself to her. But I do think that had I managed better with your uncle things might have been different."
"I doubt it. Indeed I know that it is not so; and can assure you that you need not make yourself unhappy on that score. I had thought, as you well know, that he would have done something for Lily;—something, though not as much as he always intended to do for Bell. But you may be sure of this; that he had made up his mind as to what he would do. Nothing that you or I could have said would have changed him."
"Well; we won't say anything more about it," said Crosbie.