'You little know my heart, sir. You little know
the truth!'
'It is natural you should do so; it is very probable you may, without
being conscious of it,' said Mr Haredale, speaking more to himself than
her. 'We are a fallen house. Money, dispensed with the most lavish
hand, would be a poor recompense for sufferings like yours; and thinly
scattered by hands so pinched and tied as ours, it becomes a miserable
mockery. I feel it so, God knows,' he added, hastily. 'Why should I
wonder if she does!'
'You do me wrong, dear sir, indeed,' she rejoined with great
earnestness; 'and yet when you come to hear what I desire your leave to
say--'
'I shall find my doubts confirmed?' he said, observing that she faltered
and became confused. 'Well!'
He quickened his pace for a few steps, but fell back again to her side,
and said:
'And have you come all this way at last, solely to speak to me?'
She answered, 'Yes.'
'A curse,' he muttered, 'upon the wretched state of us proud beggars,
from whom the poor and rich are equally at a distance; the one being
forced to treat us with a show of cold respect; the other condescending
to us in their every deed and word, and keeping more aloof, the nearer
they approach us.
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