"Jenny, get away!" said Dolly--words not meant for him to hear, but he
had grave command of countenance.
"This lays me under one more obligation:" Carne spoke in a low voice,
and with a smile of diffidence which reminded her of Scudamore, though
the two smiles were as different as night and day. "I have taken a great
liberty in asking you to come, and that multiplies my gratitude for
your good-will. For my own sake alone I would not have dared to sue this
great favour from you, though I put it so, in terror of alarming you.
But it is for my own sake also, since anything evil to you would be
terrible to me."
"No one can wish to hurt me," she answered, looking up at him bravely,
and yet frightened by his gaze, "because I have never harmed any one.
And I assure you, sir, that I have many to defend me, even when my
father is gone from home."
"It is beyond doubt. Who would not rush to do so? But it is from those
who are least suspected that the danger comes the worst. The most modest
of all gentlemen, who blushes like a damsel, or the gallant officer
devoted to his wife and children, or the simple veteran with his stars,
and scars, and downright speech--these are the people that do the wrong,
because no one believes it is in them."
"Then which of the three is to carry me off from home, and friends, and
family--Lieutenant Scudamore, Captain Stubbard, or my own godfather,
Lord Nelson?"
This young man nourished a large contempt for the intellect of women,
and was therefore surprised at the quickness and spirit of the girl whom
he wished to terrify.
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