Her handsome face was bent downwards; her raven hair, with the perfumed white rose in it, was very close to her host.
"Is he likely to marry?"
"Not that I am aware of. I wish he was!"
"Let him take Alnwick as a residence, and remain yourself at Castle Wafer. The idea of your having to quit this beautiful place when you have made it what it is!"
Sir Isaac smiled. "Frederick says as you do, Mrs. Carleton. He protests he will never reign at Castle Wafer so long as I live. It may end in our living here together, two old bachelors; or, rather, an old bachelor and a young one."
"But shall you never marry?" she softly asked. "Why should you not form ties of your own? Oh, Sir Isaac, it is what every one would wish you to do."
Sir Isaac slightly shook his head. Frederick St. John's ears were strained to catch the conversation, although he was giving his attention to Miss Beauclerc.
"Do you know what I should like to do with Alnwick?"--and Sir Isaac's voice dropped to a whisper. "I should like to see you in it."
A streak of crimson crossed her cheek at the words. "I never, never could live again at Alnwick. Oh, Sir Isaac"--and the handsome face was raised pathetically to his--"think of the trouble it brought me! You could not expect me to go back to it."
He answered the look with eyes as pitying as her own.