"I do not love you now."
"You are determined not to marry?"
"On the contrary, I hope to do so."
Rachel's words took her by surprise. She had no idea till that moment that she hoped anything of the kind.
"You prefer some one else. That is the real truth."
"I prefer several others."
Mr. Tristram looked suspiciously at her. Her answers did not tally with his previous knowledge of her. Perhaps he forgot that he had set his docile pupil rather a long holiday task to learn in his absence, and she had learned it.
"You think you would be happier with some fortune-hunter of an aristocrat than with a plain man of your own class, who, whatever his faults may be, loves you for yourself."
Why is it that the word aristocrat as applied to a gentleman is as offensive as that of flunkey applied to a footman?
Rachel drew herself up imperceptibly.