"Is yours not settled on the latter point?" he asked.
"If it were," said Elizabeth with a little hesitation and struggling, — "that don't make it settled."
"It shews where the settling point is."
"Which leaves it as far as ever from being settled," said
Elizabeth, almost impatiently.
"A self-reliant spirit, if it be not poised on another foundation than its own, hath no fixedness that is worth anything, Miss Elizabeth; — and friends are not safe things to trust to."
"Some of them are," said Elizabeth.
"No, for they are not sure. There is but one friend that cannot be taken away from us."
"But to know that, and to know everything else about him, does not make him our friend," said Elizabeth in a voice that trembled.
"To agree to everything about him, does."
"To agree? — How? — I do agree to it," said Elizabeth.