Surrey, if
my daughter does not love you, it would be hopeless for you or for me to
assail her refusal. If she does, she has doubtless rejected you for a
reason which you can read by simply looking into my face. No words of
mine can destroy or do that away."
"There is nothing to destroy; there is nothing to do away. Thank you for
speaking of it, and making the way easy. There is nothing in all the
wide world between us,--there can be nothing between us,--if she loves
me; nothing to keep us apart save her indifference or lack of regard for
me. I want to say so to her if she will give me the chance. Will you not
help me to it?"
"You comprehend all that I mean?"
"I do. It is, as I have said, nothing. That love would not be worth the
telling that considered extraneous circumstances, and not the object
itself."
"You have counted all the consequences? I think not. How, indeed, should
you be able? Come with me a moment." The two went up to the house,
across the wide veranda, into a room half library, half lounging-room,
which, from a score of evidences strewn around, was plainly the special
resort of the master. Over the mantel hung the life-size portrait of an
excessively beautiful woman. A fine, _spirituelle_ face, with proud
lines around the mouth and delicate nostrils, but with a tender,
appealing look in the eyes, that claimed gentle treatment. This face
said, "I was made for sunshine and balmy airs, but, if darkness and
storm assail, I can walk through them unflinching, though the progress
be short; I can die, and give no sign.
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