"Oh, my dear! I don't want all these details," said her mother. "Tell me, do you like him? Are you great friends?"
"Yes, we are good friends," said Aldyth, carelessly; "you see, I have known him all my life; he is almost a brother to me."
"Now, that is nonsense, Aldyth," said Mrs. Stanton, quickly; "cousins cannot be brothers, and, after all, he is only your second cousin. What I want to know—and I think I as your mother have a right to ask—is whether he has ever given you cause to suppose that he wishes to marry you?"
Aldyth's farce grew crimson. She was silent. It was a curious proof of the subtle change that had taken place in her feelings with regard to her mother that whereas at the time of Guy's proposal, she had longed to tell it all to her mother. Now that the subject was thus introduced, she shrank from its discussion, and would gladly have evaded it altogether.
"Surely you can tell me, dearest," said her mother, seeing her hesitation. "Who can care for your welfare as I do? If your happiness is bound up with your cousin's, tell me so."
There was something so ludicrous to Aldyth in the idea suggested by her mother's words, that she could not help laughing.
"Oh, mamma, it is not so, I assure you," she said. "I should never care for Guy in that way. He did ask me to marry him a little while ago, but he quite understands now that it can never be."
"But why?" asked Mrs. Stanton, a look of vexation clouding her brow. "My dear Aldyth, I do hope you have not been misled by the foolish, romantic notions some girls have about love. How could you be so blind to your own interests as to refuse your cousin? Do you forget that he is the heir of Wyndham?"
"I do not see what that has to do with it, mamma," said Aldyth. "You would not have me marry a man whom I cannot truly love?"
"But you say that you like him, that you are good friends," persisted Mrs. Stanton; "what more would you have? What is this love you dream of? It is all very well in novels and poems, but in real life, one has to be guided by practical considerations. Does not your uncle desire this marriage?"