“Distress me, why?”
“Well, everyone thinks more highly of the prize they’ve lost. So I knew that you, when you found I was engaged to somebody else, would have some regrets, however transient, at having thrown away your chances.”
“You are very good, and in consideration of that goodness, I’ll shed all my tears in private.”
“But if I don’t mind seeing them? If I should like to see them?”
“Then I shall know that you are a mere monster of selfish cruelty, and I shall keep them to myself all the more.”
“Well, don’t you want to know who I’m engaged to?”
“I do know.”
Godwin looked much astonished.
“To the second Miss Brownlow.”
He sat down in the next chair to Deborah, and stared at her in blank amazement.