“No, do not misunderstand me. It was left for you to determine.”
“But I suppose now you had the vanity to believe that I shall do so in your favour.”
“I confess I had.”
“So I thought. Well, John, you are not mistaken, you see, and what did father say then?”
“Oh, he said a good deal more than I expected, and his kindness quite overpowered me. He spoke of poor Philip.”
“Ah, I thought he would do that,” said Miss Jamblin, her countenance changing in its expression. “I cannot forget Phil—he never will, rest assured of that. And what else did he say?”
“I told him of our altered circumstances.”
“That did not make any difference, I’ll be sworn.”
“None in the least. He said the money he had put by for his deceased son should be mine, and that I was not to trouble myself about being not so well off as I have been; but lor, Patty, it would take me a long time to tell you the whole of our conversation. It is enough to declare that he does not make money a consideration, or the need of it an impediment to our union.”
“Ah, John Ashbrook, my dear father may be a little wilful and opinionated, but his heart is right enough. No one knows that better than myself; but there, you know there is Richard and your sister Maude. What will they say?”