Page:Ethel Churchill 2.pdf/127

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ETHEL CHURCHILL.
125

neck, "not to love you, would be to have a heart of ice, or no heart at all. But you and I go through life on different principles: you ask of life its affections; I ask its amusements: I like to be admired; you like to be loved: you would tremble at the idea of an enemy; I should only think of one as giving me an opportunity of triumph: I should confide in my success, and feel quite grateful for the victory over them, which, I am sure, I should have."

"Ah!" exclaimed Mrs. Courtenaye, timidly, "beautiful as you are, gay as you always seem, I never think of you without a sensation of fear—fear for your sake, dear Henrietta!"

"Fear!" replied the other, her dark eyes kindling with haughtier light; "I should like to know the sensation, it would be something quite new!"

"Nay," interrupted her friend, "so young, every thing must be new to you!"

"I do not know," returned Lady Marchmont, "whether I am young; I believe that I am, counting my years,—a most uncertain way