"I will try to do so. I cannot but feel, however, how little right I had to ask her, seeing that I am likely to be so poor a man."
"Well, well, well—we will talk of that another time. At present we will only sing your triumphs—
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"So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, There never was knight like the young Lochinvar." |
"Felix, my dear fellow, I congratulate you with all my heart," said Augustus. "But I did not know you were good as a warrior."
"Ah, but he is though," said the judge. "What do you think of his wounds? And if all that I hear be true, he has other battles on hand. But we must not speak about that till this poor lady's trial is over."
"I need hardly tell you, sir," said Graham, with that sheep-like air which a man always carries on such occasions, "that I regard myself as the most fortunate man in the world."
"Quite unnecessary," said the judge. "On such occasions that is taken as a matter of course." And then the conversation between them for the next ten minutes was rather dull and flat.
Up stairs the same thing was going on, in a manner somewhat more animated, between the mother and daughter,—for ladies on such occasions can be more animated than men.
"Oh, mamma, you must love him," Madeline said.
"Yes, my dear; of course I shall love him now. Your papa says that he is very clever."