'And that is the amount of your complaint. He made you a formal proposal of
marriage!'
'Yes; he proposed for me.'
As I cooled, I began to feel just a very little disconcerted, and a
suspicion was troubling me that possibly an indifferent person might think
that, having no more to complain of, my language was perhaps a little
exaggerated, and my demeanour a little too tempestuous.
My uncle, I dare say, saw some symptoms of this misgiving, for, smiling
still, he said--
'My dear Maud, however just, you appear to me a little cruel; you don't
seem to remember how much you are yourself to blame; you have one faithful
friend at least, whom I advise your consulting--I mean your looking-glass.
The foolish fellow is young, quite ignorant in the world's ways. He is in
love--desperately enamoured.
Aimer c'est craindre, et craindre c'est souffrir.
And suffering prompts to desperate remedies. We must not be too hard on a
rough but romantic young fool, who talks according to his folly and his
pain.'
CHAPTER XLIX
_AN APPARITION_
'But, after all,' he suddenly resumed, as if a new thought had struck him,
'is it quite such folly, after all? It really strikes me, dear Maud, that
the subject may be worth a second thought.
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