Mistress Payne has done me the
honour to see in me a worthy man. As soon as this detestable work of
taking inhuman revenge on poor peasants is over, Mistress Payne will
become Lady Rosmore--my wife."
CHAPTER XXIII
LORD ROSMORE AS A FRIEND
A wave of colour swept into Harriet's face as Rosmore turned to her with
a smile. Doubt and uncertainty had been hers a moment ago, and the sting
of Crosby's words had hurt her; now this open declaration clothed her
with a pleasant confusion, vindicated her presence in these rooms, and
it was natural, perhaps, that there should be gratification in her heart
that her former master should understand how important a person she had
become.
Crosby remained silent. Was Rosmore speaking the truth? Could such a man
marry such a woman? It seemed impossible, and yet where love rules the
impossible constantly happens. He had grown so used to seeing Harriet
Payne a serving maid at his manor at Lenfield that he had thought of her
in no other position. As he looked at her now, standing with her hand in
Rosmore's, he was bound to admit that she made a pretty figure, that
many an eye might turn upon her with pleasure, that she certainly looked
something more than a mere serving maid.
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