"And will you tell me nothing?"
"No, girl, I will not startle your nerves and confuse your intellect with a history that, as yet, you could not understand. Do not importune me again; I will not submit to it."
"Then I will do nothing more!" said Agnes, petulantly.
"I do not intend that you shall. The whole thing is, I find, beyond your management. I might have known that your first step would be to fall in love with a boy."
"Well, and if I did, has that prevented me carrying out all your directions?"
"It has blindfolded and paralyzed you—that is all!"
"It maddened me to know that he loved another, and yet I acted with coolness throughout."
"What was this penniless boy to either of us, that you should have thwarted, or, at least, delayed all my plans for James Harrington——"
"He is all the world to me!" cried Agnes, "Worth ten thousand General Harringtons and James Harringtons. I tell you, once for all, I would not marry that solemn-faced bachelor, with all his millions, if he were at my feet this instant."
"And this is why you would not obey the directions I gave, regarding your conduct toward him?"