"I want to see you a minute," said Mrs. Askerton, bowing to him without putting out her hand, "that I might ask you how you find your cousin."
"Colonel Askerton has seen more of her than I have since her father's death, and he says that she does not bear it well. He thinks that she is ill."
"I do not think her ill. Of course she is not in good spirits."
"No; exactly. How should she be? But he thinks she seems so worn. I hope you will excuse me, Mr. Belton, but I love her so well that I cannot bear to be quite in the dark as to her future. Is anything settled yet?"
"To Aylmer Castle! Is she indeed? At once?"
"I did not think she would have gone to Aylmer Castle,--though I dare say it is the best thing she could do. She seemed to me to dislike the Aylmers,--that is, Lady Aylmer,--so much! But I suppose she is right?"
"She is circumstanced so cruelly! Is she not? Where else could she go? I do so feel for her. I believe I need hardly tell you, Mr. Belton, that she would be as welcome here as flowers in May,--but that I do not dare to ask her to come to us." She said this in a low voice, turning her eyes away from him, looking first upon the ground, and then again up at the window,--but still not daring to meet his eye.
"I don't exactly know about that," said Belton awkwardly.
"You know, I hope, that I love her dearly."
"Yes;--I do; just as though she were--my sister."
"And as your sister would you let her come here,--to us?" He sat silent for awhile, thinking, and she waited patiently for his answer. But she spoke again before he answered her. "I am well aware that you know all my history, Mr. Belton."
"I shouldn't tell it her, if you mean that, though she were my sister. If she were my wife I should tell her."
"Because then I should be sure it would do no harm."
"Then I find that you can be generous, Mr. Belton. But she knows it all as well as you do."
"Nor did I;--but I should have done so had not Captain Aylmer been before me. And now tell me whether I could ask her to come here."
"It would be useless, as she is going to Aylmer Castle."
"But she is going there simply to find a home,--having no other."
"That is not so, Mrs. Askerton. She has a home as perfectly her own as any woman in the land. Belton Castle is hers, to do what she may please with it. She can live here if she likes it, and nobody can say a word to her. She need not go to Aylmer Castle to look for a home."