Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

31. CHAPTER XXXI: TAKING POSSESSION (continued)

Clara, as she came forth, felt herself quite unable to speak, or walk, or look after her usual manner. She knew herself to be a victim to be so far a victim that she could no longer control her own fate. To Captain Aylmer, at any rate, she had never succumbed. In all her dealings with him she had fought upon an equal footing. She had never been compelled to own herself mastered. But now she was being led out that she might confess her own submission, and acknowledge that hitherto she had not known what was good for her. She knew that she would have to yield. She must have known how happy she was to have an opportunity of yielding; but yet yet, had there been any room for choice, she thought she would have refrained from walking with her cousin that evening. She had wept that afternoon because she had thought that he would not come again; and now that he had come at the first moment that was possible for him, she was almost tempted to wish him once more away.

'I suppose you understand that when I came up this morning I came merely to talk about business,' said Belton, as soon as they were off together.

'It was very good of you to come at all so soon after your arrival.'

'I told those people in London that I would have it all settled at once, and so I wanted to have it off my mind.'

'I don't know what I ought to say to you. Of course I shall not want so much money as that.'

'We won't talk about the money any more today. I hate talking about money.'

'It is not the pleasantest subject in the world.'

'No,' said he; 'no indeed. I hate it particularly between friends. So you have come to grief with your friends, the Aylmers?'

'I hope I haven't come to grief and the Aylmers, as a family, never were my friends. I'm obliged to contradict you, point by point you see.'