"
"I will not marry the man who looks with eyes of affection at another."
"How you bewilder me, and yet, how childish you are. Must I argue this
question with you? Must I show you from my own larger experience how
attached Loftus is to you? Dear fellow, his very face shows it."
"I don't want you to teach me anything from your experience, Mrs.
Bertram. Captain Bertram does not love me. I do not love him; he loves
another. She has given him all her heart, all that she can give. He
shall marry her;--he shall marry her to-morrow."
Mrs. Bertram rose very slowly.
"Beatrice," she said. "Your meaning is at last plain to me. _Noblesse
oblige_. Ah, yes, that old saying comes true all the world over. You
have not the advantage of good birth. I thought--for a long time I
thought that you were the exception that proved the rule. You were the
lady made by nature's own hand. Your father could be a tradesman--a
_draper_--and yet have a lady for his daughter. I thought this,
Beatrice; I was deceived. There are no exceptions to that nobility which
only birth can bestow. You belong to the common herd, the
_canaille_. You cannot help yourself. A promise to one like you is
nothing. You are tired of Loftus. This is an excuse to get out of a
bargain of which you have repented.
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