‘High praise from you, Robin. Yet how could you forgive his declaration from so unequal a position?’
‘I thought it part of his consistently honest dealing. Had she been a mere child, knowing nothing of the world, and subject to parents, it might have been otherwise; but independent and formed as she is, it was but just to avow his sentiments, and give her the choice of waiting.’
‘In spite of the obloquy of a poor man paying court to wealth?’
‘I fancy he was too single-minded for that idea, and that it was not wealth which he courted was proved by his rejection of Mervyn’s offer. Do you know, I think his refusal will do Mervyn a great deal of good. He is very restless to find out the remaining objections to his management, and Randolf will have more influence with him than I ever could, while he considers parsons as a peculiar species.’
‘If people would only believe the good of not compromising!’
‘They must often wait a good while to see the good!’
‘But, oh! the fruit is worth waiting for! Robin,’ she added, after a pause, ‘you have been in correspondence with my boy.’
‘Yes,’ said Robert; ‘and there, indeed, you may be satisfied. The seed you sowed in the morning is bearing its increase!’
‘I sowed! Ah, Robert! what I sowed was a false crop, that had almost caused the good seed to be rooted up together with it!’
‘Not altogether, said Robert. ‘If you made any mistakes that led to a confusion of real and unreal in his mind, still, the real good you did to him is incalculable.’