Volume II Part 21 (1/2)
Carlisle.”
”Why not?”
”You know, mamma,” Eleanor said calmly, though her heart beat; ”you know what conclusions people draw about me and Mr. Carlisle. If I went to Hampton Court or to Richmond with him, I should give them, and him too, a right to those conclusions.”
”What have you been doing for months past, Eleanor? I should like to know.”
”Giving him no right to any conclusions whatever, mamma, that would be favourable to him. He knows that.”
”He knows no such thing. You are a fool, Eleanor. Have you not said to all the world all this winter, by your actions, that you belonged to him? All the world knows it was an engagement, and you have been telling all the world that it is. Mr. Carlisle knows what to expect.”
Eleanor coloured.
”I cannot fulfil his expectations, mamma. He has no right to them.”
”I tell you, you have given him a right to them, by your behaviour these months past. Ever since we were at Brighton. Why how you encouraged him there!”
A great flush rose to Eleanor's cheeks.
”Mamma,--no more than I encouraged others. Grace given to all is favour to none.”
”Ay, but there was the particular favour in his case of a promise to marry him.”
”Broken off, mamma.”
”The world did not know that, and you did not tell them. You rode, you walked, you talked, you went hither and thither with Mr. Carlisle, and suffered him to attend you.”
”Not alone, mamma; rarely alone.”
”Often alone, child; often of evenings. You are alone with a gentleman in the street, if there is a crowd before and behind you.”
”Mamma, all those things that I did, and that I was sorry to do, I could hardly get out of or get rid of; they were Mr. Carlisle's doing and yours.”
”Granted; and you made them yours by acceptance. Now Eleanor, you are a good girl; be a sensible girl. You have promised yourself to Mr.
Carlisle in the eye of all the world; now be honest, and don't be shy, and fulfil your engagements.”
”I have made none,” said Eleanor getting up and beginning to walk backwards and forwards in the room. ”Mr. Carlisle has been told distinctly that I do not love him. I will never marry any man whom I have not a right affection for.”
”You did love him once, Eleanor.”
”Never! not the least; not one bit of real--Mamma, I _liked_ him, and I do that now; and then I did not know any better; but I will never, for I ought never, to marry any man upon mere liking.”
”How come you to know any better now?”
Eleanor's blush was beautiful again for a minute; then it faded. She did not immediately speak.
”Is Mr. Carlisle right after all, and has he a rival?”
”Mamma, you must say what you please. Surely it does not follow that a woman must love all the world because she does not love one.”