"Why should you be so surprised, Aldyth? You must know that I love you, and that uncle and every one believes that we shall be married."
"Indeed!" said Aldyth, in a strange hard tone. "How long has it been so, I wonder? Was it uncle suggested the idea to you, Guy?"
"What do you mean, Aldyth? Of course it is my own wish."
"Oh, it is satisfactory to know that," replied Aldyth in a cold tone, not without a touch of sarcasm. "But uncle has spoken to you on the subject?"
"Why, yes, he has," answered Guy, at a loss what to say. "He told me how much he wished it."
"And it is at his dictation that you honour me with this expression of his and your wish?" persisted Aldyth.
"Well, yes—no—I should not put it in that way," faltered Guy; "I wish it very much indeed, Aldyth."
"I dare say," replied his cousin, coldly. "Uncle has a way of making other people's wishes concur with his own. But, Guy, I should have thought you would have been too manly to yield to him in such a matter as this. Perhaps you think there is no harm in asking a woman to marry you whom you do not love; but I can tell you, I look on the words you have spoken to me to-night as little less than an insult."
"An insult! Aldyth, what a word to use! And I do love you; you know I do."
"As a cousin, perhaps; but not as a husband should love his wife. Guy, do you think I have been blind to all that has been going on between you and Hilda Bland? Do you suppose I cannot see that her society has more attraction for you than mine?"