The suggestion I
offered amounted briefly to this. I recommended her to tell Mr. Godfrey
Ablewhite--at a private interview, of course--that he had, to her
certain knowledge, betrayed the mercenary nature of the motive on
his side. She was then to add that their marriage, after what she had
discovered, was a simple impossibility--and she was to put it to him,
whether he thought it wisest to secure her silence by falling in with
her views, or to force her, by opposing them, to make the motive under
which she was acting generally known. If he attempted to defend himself,
or to deny the facts, she was, in that event, to refer him to ME.
Miss Verinder listened attentively till I had done. She then thanked me
very prettily for my advice, but informed me at the same time that it
was impossible for her to follow it.
"May I ask," I said, "what objection you see to following it?"
She hesitated--and then met me with a question on her side.
"Suppose you were asked to express your opinion of Mr. Godfrey
Ablewhite's conduct?" she began.
"Yes?"
"What would you call it?"
"I should call it the conduct of a meanly deceitful man."
"Mr.
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