A Family and a Fortune
Page 29
‘I was carried away. I had not been much with women. And I think that emotion of one kind - I think it may predispose the mind to others.’
‘Why do some people say that we are not alike? We seem to be almost the same. But grief for a wife is a better emotion than excitement over money. Your second feelings had a nobler foundation and deserved success. But no wonder there are no secrets between us. I only have one secret left. But it shows me what it was for Clement, when his only secret was exposed.’
‘Are you going to tell me?’
‘Yes, I am, because it is proof that I have lost my feeling for Maria. I have already proposed to someone else.’
‘What?’ said Edgar, the fear in his tone bringing final content to his brother. ‘You have not had time. You were ill a few days after you left this house,’
‘Well, I proposed to her a few minutes after. You see that I lost my feeling for Maria very soon. And she refused me. Women do not seem to want me as the companion of their lives.’
‘Miss Griffin?’ said Edgar, with incredulity and perception.
‘How affection sharpens your wits! But you should have said: “I want you, Dudley.”’
‘I think -1 see that the sun is coming out.’
‘So we can go out and walk as we have all our lives. The only difference will be that I must lean on your arm. I have had to say it for you. Saying it in your way does not count. I said it in anyone’s way. I am the better of the two.’
‘I think you might for twenty minutes, for a quarter of an hour.’
The pair went out and walked on the path outside the house, and Justine, catching the sight from a window, rose with a cry and ran to fetch her brothers.
This electronic edition published in July 2011 by Bloomsbury Reader
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Copyright © Ivy Compton-Burnett
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ISBN: 9781448204182
eISBN: 9781448203598
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