"So long as your word is not
passed you remain free. The two are as far asunder as the pole from the
equator. I thank God you are not engaged to him!"
"But why?" asked Hester, with a pang of something like dread. "Why
should you be so anxious about it?"
"Has he never said he loved you?" asked the major eagerly.
"No," said Hester hurriedly. She felt instinctively it was best to
answer directly where there was no reason for silence. What he might be
wrong to ask she was not therefore wrong to answer. But her _No_
trembled a little, for the doubt came with it, whether though literally,
it was strictly true. "We are friends," she added. "We trust each other
a good deal."
"Trust him with nothing, least of all your heart, my dear," said the
major earnestly. "Or if you must trust him, trust him with anything,
with everything, except that. He is not worthy of you."
"Do you say so to flatter me or to disparage him?"
"Entirely to disparage him. I never flatter."
"You did not surely bring me out, major Marvel, to hear evil of one of
my best friends?" said Hester, now angry.
"I certainly did--if the truth be evil--but only for your sake.
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