Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/46

“Does she know—anything about me ?”

“Oh no, no; God forbid! Her father ie dead and buried to her. So that, you see, things are going on smoothly, and I don’t want to disturb their progress,”

He nodded. “Very well,” he said, and rose to go.

At the door, however, he came back again.

"Still, Leonora,” he urged, “I have come on purpose, and I don’t see what disturbance would be caused, You would simply marry an old friend. Won't you reconsider? It is no more than right that we should be united, remembering the girl.”

She shock her head, and patted with her foot nervously.

“ Well, I won’t detain you,” he added, “I shall not be leaving Exonbury yet. You will allow me to see you again ?”

“Yes; I don’t mind,” she said, reluctantly.

The obstacles he had encountered, thongh they did not reanimate his dead passion for Leonora, did certainly make it appear indispensable to hia peace of mind to overcome her coldness. He called frequently. The first mecting with the daughter was a trying ordeal, though he did not feel drawn towards her as he had expected to be; she did not excite his sympathies. Her mother confided to Frances the errand of “her old friend,” which was viewed by the daughter with strong disfavor. His desire being thus uncongenial to both, for a long time Millborne made not the least impression upon Mrs, Frankland. His attentions pestered her rather than pleased her. He was surprised at her firmness, and it was only when he hinted at moral reagzons for their union that she was ever shaken, “Strictly apeaking,” he would say, “we ought, as honest persons, to marry; and that’s the trath of it, Leonora.”