"It is settled. I have passed my word, and I will not withdraw it."
"Bess! And after the lesson you have had from Anthony!"
"How a lesson, Julian?"
"Why, dear child, a lesson that it does not answer to marry without love."
"Surely, Julian, there was love there, on both sides."
"Oh! love! A passing caprice. Do you not know that Anthony always loved me? Why has he gone off to join the Duke of Monmouth? Do you suppose it is because he cares so greatly for the Protestant cause? Nay, wench, it is that he may escape from me—and from the sight of Urith. I am dangerous, Urith is odious to him. Better be where balls are flying than where my eyes flash with temptation and Urith's dart with jealousy."
"Julian! how canst thou speak thus?" Bessie stepped back from her visitor, without offering to take her extended hands.
"Nay! do not be so offended. What I speak is the truth, and it all comes of marrying where there is no true affection. I am holding up thy brother as a warning to thee. Dost think that Fox cares a rush for thee? Not half a rush—all he looks to is Hall; he takes thee because he cannot have Hall without thee; and to have Hall is double pleasure to him, for he will have the place as his own, spiced with the satisfaction of having robbed his friend of it."
"I cannot help myself. I have passed my word, and stand to it."