“I am much afraid that she will be justly angry, and perhaps turn me away.”
“In that case, you may return to me.”
“Yes! To be married to your odious cousin!” she said. “I thank you, I am not yet reduced to such straits!”
“You are the best judge of that,” he replied imperturbably. “I am naturally not very conversant with the duties a governess is expected to perform, but from all I have heard I should have supposed that almost anything would be preferable.”
There was so much truth in what he said that she was obliged to suppress a sigh. She said in a milder tone, “Yes, but not marriage to a drunkard, I assure you.”
“He is not likely to live long,” he offered.
She began to feel a good deal of curiosity now that her alarm had been allayed, and looked an inquiry.
“His constitution has always been sickly,” he explained. “If he does not meet his death through violence, which is by no means improbable, the brandy will soon finish him.”
“Oh!” said Miss Rochdale weakly. “But why do you wish to see him married?”
“If he dies unmarried I must inherit his estate,” he answered.