“Ah!” He was very still, but the shot went home. “And what did he say?” he asked after a moment of silent communion with himself.
“That I was the man.”
I repeated these words with as little offense as possible. I felt that no advantage should be taken of his ignorance if indeed he were as ignorant as he seemed. Nor did I feel like wounding his feelings. I simply wanted no misunderstandings to arise.
“You the man! He said that?”
“Those were his exact words.”
“The man to administer his wealth? To take his place in this community? To—” his voice sank lower, there was even an air of apology in his manner—“to wed his daughter?”
“Yes. And to my mind,”—I said it fervently—“this last honor out-weighs all the rest. I love Orpha deeply and devotedly. I have never told her so, but few women are loved as I love her.”
“You dare?” The word escaped him almost without his volition. “Didn’t you know that there at least I have the precedence? That she and I are engaged—”
“Truly, Edgar?”
He looked down at my hand which I had laid in honest appeal on his arm and as he did so he flushed ever so slightly.