"I don't want to marry, but I might not have objected to oblige mamma a short time ago; but I can no more marry him now than yourself. If your heart refuses him, so does mine. Ask me no question, I have no right to the hopes that sustain you, Georgiana, but I cannot marry the marquis. Indeed, I shall never marry—I shall share the fate of Mary."
"Ah! what a splendid home might my sacrifice find you both. I wonder if I could forget Arthur, and in my gratitude to the old man become contented to be a gay, fashionable, woman."
"Think not of it for a moment; you could not, Georgiana, bear it even so well as I, for I remember something of Granard Park and splendid doings, but you do not, and cannot regret what you never enjoyed. If you were married to the man you loved, as Louisa is, though with fewer comforts than she has, you would still be happy; and oh! how glad should I be to share your humble abode, and assist you to manage your little income!"
"Don't talk so, dear Helen, for I cannot be sure I shall have one to manage; and if he should say nothing till he returns from the next voyage, who knows in what a situation Arthur may find me! Surely Charles and Louisa will interfere to save me from persecution! Yet, alas! they would be proud of the connexion; so would Glentworth and Isabella."
