"But Napier's vanity makes me sick," retorted Julia impatiently. "The possession of my person would not satisfy him. He wants me to declare and prove that I love him; and the thing is physically impossible."
I thought of Fred Lamb and was silent.
"What has become of Amy and Argyle?" I asked, after a pause.
"Amy," said Julia, "is very proud of Argyle and also of her pregnancy, and lives in hopes that her unborn babe by the Scottish laws may yet be Duke of Argyle."
"She has bespoken a boy then?"
"Of that too she lives in hopes," repeated Julia.
"And the Duke," inquired I, with something like a sickness of the heart, "is he as tender and as loving as ever?"
"I have heard nothing to the contrary," answered Julia.
I was not jealous, but disgusted. I had always wished to love my sisters dearly. It was very hard on me that they would not let me!
"If," said Julia, "I were to consent to Napier's wishes, and he did not provide for my children, I should go into the Serpentine River the very next instant."