“Every word that you say is true, Mr. Levinger, except perhaps your last statement, which I am modest enough to doubt. But surely you understand, supposing your daughter to be willing, that it is most humiliating, even for a bankrupt, to take a wife upon such terms.”
“I understand your pride, Graves, and I like you for it. Remember, it is not you who are bankrupt, but your father’s estate, of which you are executor, and that there are occasions in life when pride should give way. After all, pride is a strictly personal possession; when you die your pride will die with you, but if you have allowed it to ruin your family, that can never be repaired. Are you therefore justified in indulging in this peculiar form of selfishness? And, my dear fellow, are you giving me your true, or rather your only reason?”
“What makes you ask that question, Mr. Levinger?”
“I have heard some gossip, that is all, Graves, as to a scene that is supposed to have occurred at your father’s death-bed, in which the name of a certain young woman was mentioned.”
“Who told you of this? my sister?”
“Certainly not. If walls have ears to hear, do you suppose that nurses and servants generally are without them? The point is, I have heard it, and, as you make no contradiction, I presume that it contains a proportion of truth.”
“If this is so, Mr. Levinger, one might think that it would induce you to request me to abandon the idea of making any advances to your daughter; but it seems to have had an opposite effect.”
“Did the story that has reached me prove you to be a confirmed evil liver, or an unprincipled libertine, this might be the case; but it proves nothing of the sort. We are liable to fall into folly, all of us, but some of us can fall out again.”
“You are charitable,” said Henry; “but it seems to me, as there are two people concerned in this sort of folly, that they owe a duty to each other.”
“Perhaps, in some cases; but it is one which has not been recognised by the other person in this instance, seeing that she has gone off and left no address.”