k you will forgive me the injury I have done
you;--and I know that you will pity me.

"I am here to see the London lawyer,--but not only for that. Aunt
Greenow is buying her wedding clothes, and Captain Bellfield is in
lodgings near to us, also buying his trousseau; or, as I should
more properly say, having it bought for him. I am hardly in a mood
for much mirth, but it is impossible not to laugh inwardly when
she discusses before me the state of his wardrobe, and proposes
economical arrangements--greatly to his disgust. At present, she
holds him very tightly in hand, and makes him account for all his
hours as well as all his money. 'Of course, he'll run wild directly
he's married,' she said to me, yesterday; 'and, of course, there'll
always be a fight about it; but the more I do to tame him now, the
less wild he'll be by-and-by. And though I dare say, I shall scold
him sometimes, I shall never quarrel with him.' I have no doubt all
that is true; but what a fool she is to trouble herself with such a
man. She says she does it for an occupation. I took courage to tell
her once that a caged tiger would give her as much to do, and be less
dangerous. She was angry at this, and answered me very sharply. I had
tried my hand on a tiger, she said, and had felt his claws. She chose
to sacrifice herself,--if a sacrifice it were to be,--when some good
result might be possible. I had nothing further to say; and from that
time to this we have been on the pleasantest terms possible as to the
Captain. They have settled with your father to take Vavasor Hall for
three years, and I suppose I shall stay with them till your return.
What I may do then will depend entirely upon your doings. I feel
myself to be a desolate, solitary being, without any tie to any
person, or to any place. I never thought that I should feel the death
of my grandfather to be such a loss to me as it has been. Except you,
I have nothing left to me; and, as regards you, I have the unpleasant
feeling that I have for years been endeavouring to do you the worst
possible injury, and that you must regard me as an enemy from whom
you have escaped indeed, but not without terrible wounds."

Alice was always angered by any assumption that her conduct to Mr
Grey had been affected by the advice or influence of her cousin Kate.
But this very feeling seemed to preserve Kate from the worse anger,
which might have been aroused against her, had Alice acknowledged the
injury which h