"You may go on loving him if you
like--I don't mind at all. You'll find it, let me tell you, a
bitterer business for yourself than for me in the end. He'll get
tired of you soon, as tired as can be--you don't know him so well
as I--and then you may wish you had never seen him!"
Mrs. Charmond had grown quite pale and weak under this prophecy.
It was extraordinary that Grace, whom almost every one would have
characterized as a gentle girl, should be of stronger fibre than
her interlocutor. "You exaggerate--cruel, silly young woman," she
reiterated, writhing with little agonies. "It is nothing but
playful friendship--nothing! It will be proved by my future
conduct. I shall at once refuse to see him more--since it will
make no difference to my heart, and much to my name."
"I question if you will refuse to see him again," said Grace,
dryly, as with eyes askance she bent a sapling down. "But I am
not incensed against you as you are against me," she added,
abandoning the tree to its natural perpendicular.
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