“Yes, Neil, dear. It’s very weak and foolish of me, but Sir Cheltnam’s coming, and he quite persecutes me with his addresses, and if I am angry he only laughs. He talks to me as if I quite belonged to him now.”
“Does he? Well, we must stop that, Bel. You are not his wife yet.”
“No, dear; and I’ve no one to come to but you and Nurse Elisia. She is so kind, but what can she do?” Neil frowned.
“Ah, yes,” he said huskily, “what can she do?”
“I believe I should have broken my heart if she had not been so loving and kind to me.”
“Loving and kind?”
“Yes; I used to hate her, Neil, but she is so good and dear.”
Neil half turned away his head.
“Neil, darling, you can help me to-night. When papa is quite strong enough I am going to beg and pray of him to let me stay at home and be his nurse and attendant. I love Tom, but I won’t ask to marry him if papa says no. But I can’t marry anyone else. I don’t want to, and it would kill me to have to say ‘I will’ to that dreadful man.”
“Poor little darling!” he said tenderly. “Then you shall not. Father must listen to reason by and by. I can think about you now, and I will.”