"
"Lady Eustace, I have not willingly omitted anything."
"So be it. I will not give you the slightest excuse for saying that you
have heard a reproach from me. You have come at last, and you are welcome.
Is that enough for you?"
He had much to say to her about the diamonds, and when he was entering the
room he had not a word to say to her about anything else. Since that
another subject had sprung up before him. Whether he was or was not to
regard himself as being at this moment engaged to marry Lady Eustace, was
a matter to him of much doubt; but of this he was sure, that if she were
engaged to him as his wife, she ought not to be entertaining her cousin
Frank Greystock down at Portray Castle unless she had some old lady, not
only respectable in life but high in rank also, to see that everything was
right. It was almost an insult to him that such a visit should have been
arranged without his sanction or cognisance. Of course, if he were bound
by no engagement--and he had been persuaded by his mother and sister to
wish that he were not bound--then the matter would be no affair of his.
If, however, the diamonds were abandoned, then the engagement was to be
continued: and in that case it was out of the question that his elected
bride should entertain another young man, even though she was a widow and
the young man was her cousin.
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