"Quite needlessly, my child, for marry him you must." Clara's bosom rose: her shoulders rose too, narrowing, and her head fell slight back. Mrs. Mountstuart exclaimed: "But the scandal! You would never, never think of following the example of that Durham girl?--whether she was provoked to it by jealousy or not. It seems to have gone so astonishingly far with you in a very short time, that one is alarmed as to where you will stop. Your look just now was downright revulsion." "I fear it is. It is. I am past my own control. Dear madam, you have my assurance that I will not behave scandalously or dishonourably. What I would entreat of you is to help me. I know this of myself . . . I am not the best of women. I am impatient, wickedly. I should be no good wife. Feelings like mine teach me unhappy things of myself." "Rich, handsome, lordly, influential, brilliant health, fine estates," Mrs. Mountstuart enumerated in petulant accents as there started across her mind some of Sir Willoughby's attributes for the attraction of the soul of woman. "I suppose you wish me to take you in earnest?" "I appeal to you for help." "What help?" "Persuade him of the folly of pressing me to keep my word." "I will believe you, my dear Middleton, on one condition: your talk of no heart is nonsense. A change like this, if one is to believe in the change, occurs through the heart, not because there is none. Don't you see that? But if you want me for a friend, you must not sham stupid. It's bad enough in itself: the imitation's horrid. You have to be honest with me, and answer me right out. You came here on this visit intending to marry Willoughby Patterne." "Yes." "And gradually you suddenly discovered, since you came here, that you did not intend it, if you could find a means of avoiding it." "Oh, madam, yes, it is true." "Now comes the test. And, my lovely Middleton, your flaming cheeks won't suffice for me this time. The old serpent can blush like an innocent maid on occasion. You are to speak, and you are to tell me in six words why that was: and don't waste one on 'madam', or 'Oh! Mrs. Mountstuart' Why did you change?" "I came--When I came I was in some doubt. Indeed I speak the truth. I found I could not give him the admiration he has, I dare say, a right to expect. I turned--it surprised me; it surprises me now. But so completely! So that to think of marrying him is . . ." "Defer the simile," Mrs. Mountstuart interposed. "If you hit on a clever one, you will never get the better of it. Now, by just as much as you have outstripped my limitation of words to you, you show me you are dishonest." "I could make a vow." "You would forswear yourself." "Will you help me?" "If you are perfectly ingenuous, I may try." "Dear lady, what more can I say?" "It may be difficult. You can reply to a catechism." "I shall have your help?"