All night did Winterborne think over that unsatisfactory ending of a

pleasant time, forgetting the pleasant time itself. He feared anew

that they could never be happy together, even should she be free to

choose him. She was accomplished; he was unrefined. It was the

original difficulty, which he was too sensitive to recklessly ignore,

as some men would have done in his place.

He was one of those silent, unobtrusive beings who want little from

others in the way of favor or condescension, and perhaps on that very

account scrutinize those others' behavior too closely. He was not

versatile, but one in whom a hope or belief which had once had its

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rise, meridian, and decline seldom again exactly recurred, as in the

breasts of more sanguine mortals. He had once worshipped her, laid out

his life to suit her, wooed her, and lost her. Though it was with

almost the same zest, it was with not quite the same hope, that he had

begun to tread the old tracks again, and allowed himself to be so

charmed with her that day.

Move another step towards her he would not. He would even repulse

her--as a tribute to conscience. It would be sheer sin to let her

prepare a pitfall for her happiness not much smaller than the first by

inveigling her into a union with such as he. Her poor father was now

blind to these subtleties, which he had formerly beheld as in noontide

light. It was his own duty to declare them--for her dear sake.

Grace, too, had a very uncomfortable night, and her solicitous

embarrassment was not lessened the next morning when another letter

from her father was put into her hands. Its tenor was an intenser

strain of the one that had preceded it. After stating how extremely

glad he was to hear that she was better, and able to get out-of-doors,

he went on: "This is a wearisome business, the solicitor we have come to see being

out of town. I do not know when I shall get home. My great anxiety in

this delay is still lest you should lose Giles Winterborne. I cannot

rest at night for thinking that while our business is hanging fire he

may become estranged, or go away from the neighborhood. I have set my

heart upon seeing him your husband, if you ever have another. Do,

then, Grace, give him some temporary encouragement, even though it is

over-early. For when I consider the past I do think God will forgive

me and you for being a little forward. I have another reason for this,

my dear. I feel myself going rapidly downhill, and late affairs have

still further helped me that way. And until this thing is done I

cannot rest in peace."




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