She shook her head, still looking at him. “No—no—there would be no advantage in it now.”
“What do you mean by now?—perhaps I might have been mistaken. Come, let me hear what it was,” the Duke cried, with an air of sudden amiability, ignoring all that had gone before.
“Father,” said Lady Jane with a certain solemnity, “there was a great deal to say—but not now. Certain things were uppermost in my mind. I thought my father would listen, and perhaps feel for me, though he might not approve. But I do not wish it now. There is nothing—it is over——”
She put her hand upon her heart, pressing it as if to keep down a sigh. Her eyes so wet, but not weeping, were strangely pathetic, with a resignation in them which it was not wonderful perhaps that he should interpret in his own way. He put out his hand and laid it caressingly upon her arm.
“My good child! if that is so, you may be sure it is for the best. I knew there was that in my Jane that would respond to what I said. And I thank you, my love, not only for myself, but in the name of the race.”
She looked at him again with a penetrating gaze. “The race is everything to you then,” she said.
“Everything, my love! everything. I have no other thought.”
“To keep it honourable and true—above all unworthy thoughts, above dishonesty and untruth,” she said slowly, telling over the words like beads.
“That is what I desire,” said the Duke. Then he added his gloss. “To retain our old nobility unbroken, to sully the name with no mésalliances. Your brother has disregarded my wishes; but though I would never have sanctioned it, he has secured another kind of advantage, and perhaps I have no right to complain. But you, my Jane, nothing must touch you: you must remain the pride of your family. And,” he added soothingly, “do not lose heart, my love. Lady Jane Altamont will not want for opportunities. Do not think from what I said that you are considered passée by any one, or that a good marriage is less likely than before. We are not come the length of putting up with an inferior, trust me, my dear.”
Lady Jane’s pallor changed into an overwhelming blush. She turned away from him, almost shaking his hand from her shoulder. “In that case,” she said, with a muffled voice full of some emotion which he did not quite understand, nor yet feel comfortable about—“in that case there is certainly no more to say.”