I said that
I regarded you as one of the best friends I had in the world. Do
you think me insincere? Do you think I forget how kind you were when
society would not have tolerated the ghost I was? I am not one who
forgets and ignores the past--who can go on to new friends with a
frigid shoulder for old ones. Let us end these misunderstandings.
Before the year is out you will probably be engaged, perhaps married.
Our lives will be widely separated. That is inevitable from the nature
of things. But distance and absence can cause no such separation as
results from misunderstanding. If we should not meet again in twenty
years I should be the same loyal friend. Now I've said it, and don't
vex me again by speaking as if I had not said and meant it."
"I can scarcely tell whether your words make me more glad or sad. Each
feeling is deeper than you will ever believe. You certainly give
me the impression that if I marry Stella Wildmere our lives will be
separated."
"You don't take nature, especially woman-nature, into consideration at
all. I am not congenial to Miss Wildmere; she does not like me. It
is nothing against her, but some people are antagonistic. This is
especially true among women, and in this case it is not strange.
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