“Go on, dear Rosalie.”
Still she remained silent and embarrassed.
“Well, Rosalie, you saw, or rather you thought you saw, in me the elements of heroism?”
“It was very impertinent in me to presume to say so—forgive it!”
“Nay, dear child, I beg you won’t take it back! If you do not hope for me, who will?”
“Indeed, I do hope for your success very strongly—and more than that, I count upon it very confidently”——
“But finish what you were going to say; you saw in some one ‘the elements of which heroes are made, and’”——
“Oh, nothing, only I dived more deeply than ever before into my lives of great men, and reflected more than ever upon the causes that made them great, if you do not think it presumption in a girl like me to talk of reflection upon such a subject. But my mind ever had an attraction to it, and you gave that attraction a new and strong interest. I thought of you, and hoped that you were on the road to an honourable and beneficent distinction. I was grieved to hear that you were coming here; I would have opposed it, had I dared. Do not stay here, Mr. Sutherland.”
“I must fulfil my engagement with your uncle!”
“My uncle will release you from it.”