'
She gently extricated herself, as though she had done so that she
might better turn round and look into his face. 'Oh, my own one,
who can say of himself that it would be so? How could it be so,
when you would have all the world against you? You would be still
what you are,--with a clog round your leg while at home. In
Parliament, among your friends, at your clubs, you would be just
what you are. You would be that Lord Silverbridge who had all the
good things at his disposal,--except that he had been unfortunate
in his marriage! But what should I be?' Though she paused he
could not answer her,--not yet. There was a solemnity in her speech
which made it necessary that he should hear her to the end. 'I,
too, have my friends in my own country. It is not disgrace to me
there that my grandfather worked on the quays. No one holds her
head higher than I do, or is more sure of being able to hold it. I
have there that assurance of esteem and honour which you have
here. I would lose it all to do you a good. But I will not lose it
all to do you an injury.
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