You know, too, none better, that an affected neglect, when
skillfully managed, is amongst the most formidable of the allurements
which artful beauty can employ. I tell you, madame, that having,
without one word spoken in discouragement, permitted my son's most
marked attentions for a twelvemonth or more, you have no _right_ to
dismiss him with no further explanation than demurely telling him that
you had always looked coldly upon him, and neither your wealth nor
_your ladyship_ (there was an emphasis of scorn on the word which
would have become Sir Giles Overreach himself) can warrant you in
treating with contempt the affectionate regard of an honest heart."
I was too much shocked at this undisguised attempt to bully me into
an acquiescence in the interested and unprincipled plan for their
own aggrandisement, which I now perceived my uncle and his son had
deliberately formed, at once to find strength or collectedness to
frame an answer to what he had said. At length I replied, with a
firmness that surprised myself:--
"In all that you have just now said, sir, you have grossly misstated
my conduct and motives. Your information must have been most
incorrect, as far as it regards my conduct towards my cousin; my
manner towards him could have conveyed nothing but dislike; and if
anything could have added to the strong aversion which I have long
felt towards him, it would be his attempting thus to frighten me into
a marriage which he knows to be revolting to me, and which is sought
by him only as a means for securing to himself whatever property is
mine.
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