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'Oh, no!'
'I do I calculate ht calculate his chances of heaven I should like you to know ether I would not win you by a lie if I could I think of you ht to do I am sure,-- quite sure that you are the only possiblemy tenure of it If I as which other men care for, it must be as your husband'
'Pray,--pray do not say that'
'Yes; I think that I have a right to say it,--and a right to expect that you should believe me I will not ask you to be ht for myself, but that you should not be pressed to make a sacrifice of yourself because I am your friend and cousin But I think it is quite possible you iven away elsewhere'
'What am I to say?'
'We each of us knohat the other is thinking If Paul Montague has robbed ue has never said a word'
'If he had, I think he would have wronged me He met you in s were towards you'
'But he never has'
'We have been like brothers together,--one brother being very much older than the other, indeed; or like father and son I think he should place his hopes elsewhere'
'What am I to say? If he have such hope he has not told irl should be asked in that way'
'Hetta, I should not wish to be cruel to you Of course I know the way of the world in such ue,--no right to expect an answer But it is all the world to ht learn to love even me, if you loved no one else' The tone of his voice was manly, and at the same tiht with love and anxiety She not only believed him as to the tale which he now told her; but she believed in hiether She knew that he was a staff on which a wo to it for comfort and protection in life In that moment she all but yielded to him Had he seized her in his arms and kissed her then, I think she would have yielded She did all but love hiarded him that had it been some other woman that he craved, she would have used every art she knew to have backed his suit, and would have been ready to swear that any woman was a fool who refused him She almost hated herself because she was unkind to one who so thoroughly deserved kindness As it was, she'I thought I would tell it you all, because I wish you to know exactly the state of my mind I would show you if I could all lass case Do not coy your love for me if you can feel it When you know, dear, that a man's heart is set upon a woman as mine is set on you, so that it is for you to ates of his earthly Paradise, I think you will be above keeping hiirlish scruple'