But she's in my house, you see; and I'm
bound to do exactly as I should if she were my sister."
"And if she were your sister?"
"I should tell you that I couldn't approve of the engagement unless
you were prepared to fix the time of your marriage. And I should ask
you where you intended to live."
"Wherever she pleases. I can't go to Maule Abbey while my father
lives, without his sanction."
"And he may live for the next twenty years."
"Or thirty."
"Then you are bound to decide upon something else. It's no use saying
that you leave it to her. You can't leave it to her. What I mean
is this, that now you are here, I think you are bound to settle
something with her. Good-night, old fellow."
CHAPTER XLII
Boulogne
Gerard Maule, as he sat upstairs half undressed in his bedroom that
night didn't like it. He hardly knew what it was that he did not
like,--but he felt that there was something wrong. He thought that
Lord Chiltern had not been warranted in speaking to him with a tone
of authority, and in talking of a brother's position,--and the rest
of it.
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