Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

6. CHAPTER VI: SAFE AGAINST LOVE-MAKING ONCE AGAIN (continued)

'That I will, and I'll tell you how Bessy goes on.' Bessy was the cow. 'I will be so very fond of her. She'll come to me for apples already.'

Belton thought that he would go to her, wherever she might be, even if he were to get no apples. 'It's all cupboard love with them,' he said. 'I'll tell you what I'll do when I come, I'll bring you a dog that will follow you without thinking of apples.' Then the gig was heard on the gravel before the door, and Belton was forced to go. For a moment he reflected whether, as her cousin, it was not his duty to kiss her. It was a matter as to which he had doubt as is the case with many male cousins; but ultimately he resolved that if he kissed her at all he would not kiss her in that light, and so he again refrained. 'Goodbye,' he said, putting out his great hand to her.

'Good-bye, Will, and God bless you.' I almost think he might have kissed her, asking himself no questions as to the light in which it was done.

As he turned from her he saw the tears in her eyes; and as he sat in the gig, thinking of them, other tears came into his own. By heaven, he would have her yet! He was a man who had not read much of romance. To him all the imagined mysteries of passion had not been made common by the perusal of legions of love stories but still he knew enough of the game to be aware that women had been won in spite, as it were, of their own teeth. He knew that he could not now run away with her, taking her off by force; but still he might conquer her will by his own. As he remembered the tears in her eyes, and the tone of her voice, and the pressure of her hand, and the gratitude that had become tender in its expression, he could not hut think that he would be wise to love her still. Wise or foolish, he did love her still; and it should not be owing to fault of his if she did not become his wife. As he drove along he saw little of the Quantock hills, little of the rich Somersetshire pastures, little of the early beauty of the August morning. He saw nothing but her eyes, moistened with bright tears, and before he reached Taunton he had rebuked himself with many revilings in that he had parted from her and not kissed her.