Isabel certainly was unable to say she thought it; but presently she said something else. “If you’ve not been requested by Lord Warburton to argue with me, then you’re doing it disinterestedly—or for the love of argument.”
“I’ve no wish to argue with you at all. I only wish to leave you alone. I’m simply greatly interested in your own sentiments.”
“I’m greatly obliged to you!” cried Isabel with a slightly nervous laugh.
“Of course you mean that I’m meddling in what doesn’t concern me. But why shouldn’t I speak to you of this matter without annoying you or embarrassing myself? What’s the use of being your cousin if I can’t have a few privileges? What’s the use of adoring you without hope of a reward if I can’t have a few compensations? What’s the use of being ill and disabled and restricted to mere spectatorship at the game of life if I really can’t see the show when I’ve paid so much for my ticket? Tell me this,” Ralph went on while she listened to him with quickened attention. “What had you in mind when you refused Lord Warburton?”
“What had I in mind?”
“What was the logic—the view of your situation—that dictated so remarkable an act?”
“I didn’t wish to marry him—if that’s logic.”
“No, that’s not logic—and I knew that before. It’s really nothing, you know. What was it you said to yourself? You certainly said more than that.”
Isabel reflected a moment, then answered with a question of her own. “Why do you call it a remarkable act? That’s what your mother thinks too.”
“Warburton’s such a thorough good sort; as a man, I consider he has hardly a fault. And then he’s what they call here no end of a swell. He has immense possessions, and his wife would be thought a superior being. He unites the intrinsic and the extrinsic advantages.”