He had asked his cousin to be his wife, thereby making good his promise to his aunt.

There could be no further necessity for pressing haste.
Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
It is not to be supposed that the thriving lover actually spoke to himself in such language as that,--or that he confessed to himself that Clara Amedroz was an evil to him rather than a blessing.

But his feelings were already so far tending in that direction, that he was by no means disposed to make any further promise, or to engage himself in closer connection with matrimony by the mention of any special day.

Clara, finding that her companion would not talk without encouragement from her, had to begin again, and asked all those natural questions about his family, his brother, his sister, his home habits, and the old house in Yorkshire, the answers to which must be so full of interest to her.

But even on these subjects he was dry, and indisposed to answer with the full copiousness of free communication which she desired.