'
'Is it really so, Miss Murray? and does your mamma know it, and yet
wish you to marry him?'
'To be sure, she does! She knows more against him than I do, I
believe: she keeps it from me lest I should be discouraged; not
knowing how little I care about such things. For it's no great
matter, really: he'll be all right when he's married, as mamma
says; and reformed rakes make the best husbands, EVERYBODY knows.
I only wish he were not so ugly--THAT'S all _I_ think about: but
then there's no choice here in the country; and papa WILL NOT let
us go to London--'
'But I should think Mr. Hatfield would be far better.'
'And so he would, if he were lord of Ashby Park--there's not a
doubt of it: but the fact is, I MUST have Ashby Park, whoever
shares it with me.'
'But Mr. Hatfield thinks you like him all this time; you don't
consider how bitterly he will be disappointed when he finds himself
mistaken.'
'NO, indeed! It will be a proper punishment for his presumption--
for ever DARING to think I could like him. I should enjoy nothing
so much as lifting the veil from his eyes.'
'The sooner you do it the better then.'
'No; I tell you, I like to amuse myself with him. Besides, he
doesn't really think I like him. I take good care of that: you
don't know how cleverly I manage.
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