"You have done a great deal in my absence, I find Mary," he next said, throwing himself upon a chair. She thought he alluded to the proposal of Eugene and her acceptance, so answered in her truthful manner, and somewhat apologetically. "Oh, no! not in your absence; that took place a day or two before you left, but Eugene thought it better that I should--" "Oh yes!" he answered with some repressed impatience, "I have heard all that--I mean to say that you have been taken to Montrevor to see your future possessions; introduced to the old father--in short, everything has been so well managed between Trevor and Olivia, that there only requires the signing and sealing to make the whole thing sure, before you know _yourself_ very well what you are about." "Indeed, Louis?" Mary answered gently, though at the same time surprised--in spite of Mrs. de Burgh's warning as to the objections she was sure to encounter--at the tone and tenor of her cousin's words; and feeling naturally a little hurt and offended, she added "I do not quite understand you. I assure you, I know very well what I am about." "Do you?" he said, with something of the sneering way of which Mrs. de Burgh so often complained; "I think not--I don't know indeed how you should--" "I have promised to marry one whom I love, and whose love for me I feel sure is as deep and truthful as my own," Mary replied, the colour mounting to her brow, and a tear glistening in her eyes, "Like a child who never knew but love, And who words of wrath surprised." "Oh, of course! no doubt of all that," he said, much in the same tone. "Well! what then, Louis?" she enquired meekly, yet firmly, "Why--what cause?--" "What cause or impediment why these two persons should not be lawfully joined together in holy wedlock?" repeated her cousin, breaking suddenly into a more amiable and lively tone and manner, as if not proof against the gentle manner in which his ungracious strictures were received. "I will tell you why--he is not good enough for you, Mary, or rather, you are far too good for him." "Is that all?" Mary's quiet smile might have seemed to express, for she had been previously prepared for this particular objection of her cousin's, by his wife. "_You_ think so, Louis," she replied, "but forgive me if I differ from that opinion." "Yes, I certainly think so," he coldly retorted, "we read in the bible that 'we are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers,'--nay," as Mary attempted to interrupt him, "I do not speak literally--Eugene's religious faith may be, for aught I know, as pure as my own, or yours--but 'what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness, and what companionship has light with darkness--and what concord hath--'"