of course could not think it right that a young lady should remain with
him, in his house, as his visitor; and to her decision on this point he
had made no objection. She now heartily wished that she had named the
day after the funeral, and that she had not been deterred by her
dislike of making a Sunday journey. She dreaded this day, and would
have been very thankful if he would have left her and gone back to
London. But he intended, he said, to remain at Perivale throughout the
next week, and she must endure the day as best she might be able. She
wished that it were possible to ask Mr Possitt to his accustomed
dinner; but she did not dare to make the proposition to the master of
the house. Though Captain Aylmer had declared Mr Possitt to be a very
worthy man, Clara surmised that he would not be anxious to commence
that practice of a Sabbatical dinner so soon after his aunt's decease.
The day, after all, would be but one day, and Clara schooled herself
into a resolution to bear it with good humour.

Captain Aylmer had made a positive promise to his aunt on her deathbed
that he would ask Clara Amedroz to be his wife, and be had no more idea
of breaking his word than he had of resigning the whole property which
had been left to him. Whether Clara would accept him he had much doubt.
He was a man by no means brilliant, not naturally self-confident, nor
was he, perhaps, to be credited with the possession of high principles
of the finest sort; but he was clever, in the ordinary sense of the
word, knowing his own interest, knowing, too, that that interest
depended on other things besides money; and ha was a just man,
according to the ordinary rules of justice in the world. Not for the
first time, when he was sitting by the bedside of his dying aunt, had
he thought of asking Clara to marry him. Though he had never hitherto
resolved that he would do so though he had never till then brought
himself absolutely to determine that he would take so important a step