'She, then?'
'It is nothing at all that Robina said.'
'Come, make a clean breast. What lies at the bottom of this absurd rejection of the best offer you'll ever have in your life?'
Edgar took the pipe out of his mouth, that the smoke might not obscure his view of the young face whose brow was resting on an arm leant on the mantel-piece, and the eyes far away. 'What's the bugbear? and I'll clear it up.'
'No bugbear.'
'You don't trust me. Eh? Is that it? Have they told you I mean to prey on your innocence?'
'No, indeed, Edgar!'
'Are you afraid of the great and wicked world? I thought you'd more spirit than that; and I've always told you, you might run after as many churches as you chose. I'd never hinder you. Come, have it out, Lance, you think me a corrupter of your artless youth?'
'No!'
'Come, out with it. What has turned you?'