"Why should her mother refuse my love for her daughter? But she has no mother. She has a father who has accepted me. I do believe that had the matter been left wholly to him, Marion would now be my wife."
"I was away, my lord, in Italy."
"I will not be so harsh to such a friend as you, as to say that I wish you had remained there; but I feel,—I cannot but feel—"
"My lord, I think the truth is that you hardly know how strong in such a matter as this our Marion herself can be. Neither have I nor has her father prevailed upon her. I can go back now, and tell you without breach of confidence all that passed between her and me. When first your name was discussed between us; when first I saw that you seemed to make much of her—"
"Make much of her!" exclaimed Hampstead, angrily.
"Yes; make much of her! When first I thought that you were becoming fond of her."
"You speak as though there had been some idle dallying. Did I not worship her? Did I not pour out my whole heart into her lap from the first moment in which I saw her? Did I hide it even from you? Was there any pretence, any falsehood?"
"No, indeed."
"Do not say that I made much of her. The phrase is vile. When she told me that she loved me, she made much of me."
"When first you showed us that you loved her," she continued, "I feared that it would not be for good."