Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

13. CHAPTER XIII: MR WILLIAM BELTON TAKES A WALK IN THE COUNTRY (continued)

'I wish I knew whether you liked her or not.'

'I do like her I love her better than any one in the world; better even than you, Mary; for I have asked her to be my wife.'

'Oh, Will!'

'And she has refused me. Now you know the whole of it the whole history of what I have done while I have been away.' And he stood up before her, with his thumbs thrust into the arm-holes of his waistcoat, with something serious and almost solemn in his gait, in spite of a smile which played about his mouth.

'Oh, Will!'

'I meant to have told you, of course, Mary to have told you everything; but I did not mean to tell it to-night; only it has somehow fallen from me. Out of the full heart the mouth speaks, they say.'

'I never can like her if she refuses your love.'

'Why not? That is unlike you, Mary. Why should she be bound to love me because I love her?'

'Is there any one else, Will?'

'How can I tell? I did not ask her. I would not have asked her for the world, though I would have given the world to know.'

'And she is so very beautiful?'

'Beautiful! It isn't that so much though she is beautiful. But but I can't tell you why but she is the only girl that I ever saw who would suit me for a wife. Oh, dear!'

'My own Will!'