'Oh!' she burst out with a cry; 'don't, don't, don't go on like that—just as if it were somebody else.'
The sound of misery convinced him that he was acting for the best in killing at once any embryo aspiration directed towards himself; more especially as he felt her more capable than any one he had met since Alice Knevett of stirring what he was resolved never to allow to be stirred. Never would he have risked this tête-à-tête but for his recent interview with the two physicians; and her sorrow touched and warmed the inmost recesses of his heart. He leant forward, saying, 'There is so little actual suffering that perhaps I feel as if it were somebody else. I have been expecting this, and there have been a weight and weariness about me which make the thought of rest not unwelcome.'
'Oh, no, no! You are quite young. Papa and Tom couldn't have said it was so bad. There can't be no hope.'
'No, there is just a chance of things taking a different turn.'
'Oh! they will! I know they will! Please don't give yourself up. That's the worst thing for any one.'
'I don't do that;' and as she came and stood by him he looked up in her face, saying, 'there is so much kindness in the world that one would gladly not leave it, if only not to grieve one's friends.'
'I wish,' with a half-angry sob, 'you wouldn't talk in that horrid resigned way.'
'This will not do, indeed, my dear.' Her weeping made the word slip out as in reasoning with one of his sisters, but it brought her colour, and the tint was reflected in his own as he said, 'I beg your pardon.'
'Oh! please, I do like it so.'
He found himself on perilous ground, for he was exceedingly drawn towards the girl, whose warmth gave him a greater sense of sweetness than ever had Alice's most gracious moments; and it was with strong effort that he preserved a sort of fatherly tone.