"
"I know she refused Warburton: he told me himself."
"Well, that proves there's a chance for somebody else."
"Somebody else took his chance the other day in London- and got
nothing by it."
"Was it you?" Mr. Touchett eagerly asked.
"No, it was an older friend; a poor gentleman who came over from
America to see about it."
"Well, I'm sorry for him, whoever he was. But it only proves what
I say- that the way's open to you."
"If it is, dear father, it's all the greater pity that I'm unable to
tread it. I haven't many convictions; but I have three or four that
I hold strongly. One is that people, on the whole, had better not
marry their cousins. Another is that people in an advanced stage of
pulmonary disorder had better not marry at all."
The old man raised his weak hand and moved it to and fro before
his face. "What do you mean by that? You look at things in a way
that would make everything wrong. What sort of a cousin is a cousin
that you had never seen for more than twenty years of her life?
We're all each other's cousins, and if we stopped at that the human
race would die out. It's just the same with your bad lung.
Pages:
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317