'You know the rest, and how I was dazzled both by her beauty and the charm of her connection, but for years past the sense of my huge mistake has been upon me; yet till Felix came into possession here, I still thought it was his punctilious feeling alone that kept you apart.'
'As if he had ever cared for me except in a cousinly, brotherly sort of way! Did you think that was what made me hush up poor Edgar's affair, though indeed I never felt so thankful to any one as to you for having saved that secret.'
'Do you know what your generosity made me wish, though I never durst speak it before? That you would forget all these mistakes and forgive me, and come back to what things were before that misunderstanding.'
'Oh!' cried Marilda, with a long breath, 'you can't really mean it.'
'What else should I mean? If you will only forgive and overlook.'
'Don't talk in that way,' cried Marilda. 'Why I never cared for anyone else, and always have—but'—breaking off in the midst—'hark, there are wheels. That poor thing will be gone.'
'You had better go up and tell her.'
'Not this—I can't. It would only make him more savage; besides at such a time.'
'True. No—only let them know I'll go. I'm gone. No, I can't leave the place till I've heard his opinion—but I'll go over to Ewmouth. I'll see you again and settle—only don't let her be dragged away.'
Marilda was obliged to go up, with the vaguest ideas as to what to say, in a case that even she felt to be delicate, but on coming to the scene of action, she found that the words she had overheard amounted to no more than an ebullition of temper. Sir Adrian did not wish to leave behind him a character for brutality, and since he could plead an appointment and escape from the house of mourning, he could endure leaving his wife to it; and an excuse for yielding was afforded by the maid who, coming up with the two little girls, brought word that Mrs. Harewood was asking for my Lady.