And if he does--why, he may.

I like you both; I intend us to be excellent friends, whenever I chance to be at Norton Bury.

Don't be proud, and reject me, there's good people--the only good people I ever knew who were not disagreeable." And leaning on her large ermine muff, she looked right into John's face, with the winning sweetness which Nature, not courts, lent to those fair features--already beginning to fade, already trying to hide by art their painful, premature decay.
John returned the look, half sorrowfully; it was so hard to give back harshness to kindliness.

But a light laugh from the other lady caught his ear, and his hesitation--if hesitation he had felt-was over.
"No, Lady Caroline, it cannot be.

You will soon see yourself that it cannot.