I depend further upon his strong feelings; for strong
I perceive they are, with all his affectation; and on his weakness
of character, which will allow him to be the dupe of his first great
emotion. It is to prevent that explosion from taking place under any
other roof than my own that I now require your advice and assistance;
that advice and assistance which already have done so much for me. I
like not this sudden and uncontemplated visit to Castle Dacre. I fear
these Dacres; I fear the revulsion of his feelings. Above all, I fear
that girl.'
'But her cousin; is he not a talisman? She loves him.'
'Pooh! a cousin! Is not the name an answer? She loves him as she loves
her pony; because he was her companion when she was a child, and kissed
her when they gathered strawberries together. The pallid, moonlight
passion of a cousin, and an absent one, too, has but a sorry chance
against the blazing beams that shoot from the eyes of a new lover. Would
to Heaven that I had not to go down to my boobies at Cleve! I should
like nothing better than to amuse myself an autumn at Dallington with
the little Dacre, and put an end to such an unnatural and irreligious
connection.
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