‘But why should you not be happy?’ enquired Miss Temple.
‘Because we are not suited to each other. Ferdinand must marry some one whom he looks up to, somebody brilliant like himself, some one who can sympathise with all his fancies. I am too calm and quiet for him. You would suit him much better, Henrietta.’
‘You are his cousin; it is a misfortune; if you were not, he would adore you, and you would sympathise with him.’
‘I think not: I should like to marry a very clever man,’ said Katherine. ‘I could not endure marrying a fool, or a commonplace person; I should like to marry a person very superior in talent to myself, some one whose opinion would guide me on all points, one from whom I could not differ. But not Ferdinand; he is too imaginative, too impetuous; he would neither guide me, nor be guided by me.’
Miss Temple did not reply, but turned over a page of her book.
‘Did you know Ferdinand before you met him yesterday at our house?’ enquired Miss Grandison, very innocently.
‘Yes!’ said Miss Temple.
‘I thought you did,’ said Miss Grandison, ‘I thought there was something in your manner that indicated you had met before. I do not think you knew my aunt before you met her at Bellair House?’
‘I did not.’
‘Nor Sir Ratclifle?’