"
"Is he not my cousin?"
"Yes, he is your cousin. Why don't you ask him? You see him every day, I
suppose?"
"Nearly every day."
"Why do you send for me, then?"
"It is so hard to tell you, Lucy. I have sent to you in good faith, and in
love. I could have gone to you, only for the old vulture, who would not
have let us had a word in peace. I do see him, constantly. And I love him
dearly."
"That is nothing to me," said Lucy. Anybody hearing them, and not knowing
them, would have said that Lucy's manner was harsh in the extreme.
"He has told me everything." Lizzie, when she said this, paused, looking
at her victim. "He has told me things which he could not mention to you.
It was only yesterday--the day before yesterday--that he was speaking to
me of his debts. I offered to place all that I have at his disposal, so as
to free him, but he would not take my money."
"Of course he would not."
"Not my money alone. Then he told me that he was engaged to you. He had
never told me before, but yet I knew it. It all came out then. Lucy,
though he is engaged to you, it is me that he loves."
"I don't believe it," said Lucy.
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