There was nothing in the way, I thought. Poor Hal was dead, and had left
me his title and estate. I could pour some brightness into her weary
life, and two weeks after the funeral I went again to Stoneleigh and
asked her to marry me."
Jack paused a moment, and leaning forward eagerly, Grey said:
"Yes, you asked her to marry you, and she consented?"
"No; oh, no" Jack groaned, "If she had, she might not now have been
dead; my Bessie, whom I loved so much. She refused me, and worst of all,
she told me she was plighted to Neil, her cousin."
"To Neil! Bessie plighted to Neil! That is impossible, for he is to
marry Blanche Trevellian, so everybody says," Grey exclaimed, conscious
of a keener pang than he had experienced when he thought Jack his rival.
"And everybody is right," Jack replied: "he will marry Blanche, but he
was engaged to Bessie under the promise of strictest secrecy until his
mother, who had threatened to disinherit him, was reconciled, or he
found something which would support him without any effort on his part,
Neil McPherson would never exert himself, or deny himself either, even
for the woman he loved, and, Grey, I speak the truth when I tell you
that I would rather know that Bessie was dead than to see her Neil's
wife.
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