spared her--"that you
intended to break your engagement with Mr Grey," he continued, "I
said little or nothing to you. I would not ask you to marry any man,
even though you had yourself promised to marry him. But when you
tell me that you are engaged to your cousin George, the matter is
very different. I do not think well of your cousin. Indeed I think
anything but well of him. It is my duty to tell you that the world
speaks very ill of him." He paused, but Alice remained silent. "When
you were about to travel with him," he continued, "I ought perhaps to
have told you the same. But I did not wordnetdesire to  you or his sister;
and, moreover, I have heard worse of him since then,--much worse than
I had heard before."

"As you did not tell me before, I think you might spare me now," said
Alice.

"No, my dear; I cannot allow you to sacrifice yourself without
telling you that you are doing so. If it were not for your money he
would never think of marrying you."

"Of that I am well aware," said Alice. "He has told me so himself