'And your secret marriage was, then, the true and only reason for that backwardness regarding the courtship of Cytherea, which, they tell me, has been the talk of the village; not your indifference to her attractions.' Her voice had a tone of conviction in it, as well as of inquiry; but none of jealousy.
'Yes,' he said; 'and not a dishonourable one. What held me back was just that one thing--a sense of morality that perhaps, madam, you did not give me credit for.' The latter words were spoken with a mien and tone of pride.
Miss Aldclyffe preserved silence.
'And now,' he went on, 'I may as well say a word in vindication of my conduct lately, at the risk, too, of offending you. My actual motive in submitting to your order that I should send for my late wife, and live with her, was not the mercenary policy of wishing to retain an office which brings me greater comforts than any I have enjoyed before, but this unquenchable passion for Cytherea. Though I saw the weakness, folly, and even wickedness of it continually, it still forced me to try to continue near her, even as the husband of another woman.' He waited for her to speak: she did not.
'There's a great obstacle to my making any way in winning Miss Graye's love,' he went on.
'Yes, Edward Springrove,' she said quietly. 'I know it, I did once want to see them married; they have had a slight quarrel, and it will soon be made up again, unless--' she spoke as if she had only half attended to Manston's last statement.
'He is already engaged to be married to somebody else,' said the steward.
'Pooh!' said she, 'you mean to his cousin at Peakhill; that's nothing to help us; he's now come home to break it off.' 'He must not break it off,' said Manston, firmly and calmly.
His tone attracted her, startled her. Recovering herself, she said haughtily, 'Well, that's your affair, not mine. Though my wish has been to see her _your_ wife, I can't do anything dishonourable to bring about such a result.' 'But it must be _made_ your affair,' he said in a hard, steady voice, looking into her eyes, as if he saw there the whole panorama of her past.
One of the most difficult things to portray by written words is that peculiar mixture of moods expressed in a woman's countenance when, after having been sedulously engaged in establishing another's position, she suddenly suspects him of undermining her own. It was thus that Miss Aldclyffe looked at the steward.