"
"My heart is here," she continued, those dreamy eyes still fixed upon
mine. "I think if any one were to say to me, 'You must leave Crown
Anstey,' I should die."
All the music on earth seemed embodied in those few words.
"I should die," she repeated, "just as a flower dies when it is torn
from the soil it has taken deep root."
"Why do you speak of such things?" I asked. "No one thinks of your
going; this is your home."
"In my happiest hours the fear lies heaviest upon me," she replied. "No
one has ever spoken of my going, that is true; but I have common sense,
and common sense tells me if certain events happen I must go."
"What events do you mean?" I asked, all unconsciously.
She sighed deeply.
"If you were to be married, Sir Edgar--Cousin Edgar, I like to say
best--then I must go."
"I do not see the necessity."
"Ah! you do not understand; women are all jealous. I have grown so
accustomed to perform a hundred little services for you, they make the
pleasure and sunshine of my life. To be able to do some little thing to
help you is the highest earthly joy that I can ever know. When you are
married, Sir Edgar, your wife will take all this happiness from me.
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