" "That," Leonora said, "is the
law of the church. It is not the law of the land. . . ."
"Oh yes," Nancy said, "the Brands are Protestants." She felt a
sudden safeness descend upon her, and for an hour or so her mind
was at rest. It seemed to her idiotic not to have remembered Henry
VIII and the basis upon which Protestantism rests. She almost
laughed at herself.
The long afternoon wore on; the flames still fluttered when the
maid made up the fire; the St Bernard awoke and lolloped away
towards the kitchen. And then Leonora opened her eyes and said
almost coldly:
"And you? Don't you think you will get married?"
It was so unlike Leonora that, for the moment, the girl was
frightened in the dusk. But then, again, it seemed a perfectly
reasonable question. "I don't know," she answered. "I don't know
that anyone wants to marry me."
"Several people want to marry you," Leonora said.
"But I don't want to marry," Nancy answered. "I should like to go
on living with you and Edward. I don't think I am in the way or
that I am really an expense. If I went you would have to have a
companion. Or, perhaps, I ought to earn my living. . . ."
"I wasn't thinking of that," Leonora answered in the same dull tone.
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