"Well, no; not just at present."
"I declare I don't think he could do anything better," her cousin said to her that night. Lady Glencora was now in the habit of having Alice with her in what she called her dressing-room every evening, and then they would sit till the small hours came upon them. Mr. Palliser always burnt the midnight oil and came to bed with the owls. They would often talk of him and his prospects till Alice had perhaps inspired his wife with more of interest in him and them than she had before felt. And Alice had managed generally to drive her friend away from those topics which were so dangerous,--those allusions to her childlessness, and those hints that Burgo Fitzgerald was still in her thoughts. And sometimes, of course, they had spoken of Alice's own prospects, till she got into a way of telling her cousin freely all that she felt. On such occasions Lady Glencora would always tell her that she had been right,--if she did not love the man. "Though your finger were put out for the ring," said Lady Glencora on one such occasion, "you should go back, if you did not love him."
"But I did love him," said Alice.

"Not just at present."
"I don't think he could do any better," her cousin said to her that night. Lady Glencora was now in the habit of having Alice with her in her dressing-room every evening, when they would sit till the small hours. They would often talk of Mr. Palliser and his prospects, and Alice inspired his wife with more interest in him than she had felt before. And Alice managed generally to drive her friend away from the dangerous topics of her childlessness, and Burgo Fitzgerald.
Sometimes, of course, they spoke of Alice's own prospects, till she was telling her cousin freely all that she felt. 