"That's the time o' day," shouted Tom. "Silence gives consent; now just give us a good brotherly grip of the hand, Mellen, and it's all right."
Tom folded one arm around his cousin, and held out the other a second time. Mellen took it in his, wrung it warmly, and left the room.
"Just go in and comfort her a little, Bessie, poor darling, she's afraid you won't consent."
"Generous, noble fellow," said Elizabeth, kissing him with warmth; "but where will you go? what will you do? It is all so very sudden."
"Do! what on earth can I do but love her like distraction? Go! any place where she can find life and fun, plenty of shopping. Paris, isn't that a nice sort of place for pretty things? I think we'll go to Paris first. But, I forgot, Rhodes's daughter, the old maid, is waiting for you downstairs. Victoria would have told you if I hadn't shut her out."
Elizabeth went down, leaving Tom in the only spot he cared to occupy on earth. She found Miss Jemima in a state of wild commotion, with her riding-dress buttoned awry, and one of her gauntlets torn half off with hard pulling.
"Did you know it? had you any suspicion?" she demanded, confronting Elizabeth like a grenadier; "I could think it of your sister, but you—you—"
"What is it? I know nothing," answered Elizabeth.
"They are married, absolutely married; my par and that painted lay figure you introduced to him, that Mrs. Harrington."
"What, your father married to her!" cried Elizabeth; "you surprise me."