"
On the blank space at the foot of the page a few words were added in
Isabel's writing: "Whatever changes there may be in my life, your place
in my heart is one that no other person can fill: it is the place of my
dearest friend. Pray write and tell me that you are not distressed and
not angry. My one anxiety is that you should remember what I have always
told you about the state of my own feelings. My one wish is that you
will still let me love you and value you, as I might have loved and
valued a brother."
The letter dropped from Moody's hand. Not a word--not even a
sigh--passed his lips. In tearless silence he submitted to the pang that
wrung him. In tearless silence he contemplated the wreck of his life.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE narrative returns to South Morden, and follows the events which
attended Isabel's marriage engagement.
To say that Miss Pink, inflated by the triumph, rose, morally speaking,
from the earth and floated among the clouds, is to indicate faintly the
effect produced on the ex-schoolmistress when her niece first informed
her of what had happened at the farm. Attacked on one side by her aunt,
and on the other by Hardyman, and feebly defended, at the best, by her
own doubts and misgivings, Isabel ended by surrendering at discretion.
Like thousands of other women in a similar position, she was in the last
degree uncertain as to the state of her own heart. To what extent she
was insensibly influenced by Hardyman's commanding position in believing
herself to be sincerely attached to him, it was beyond her power of
self-examination to discover.
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