"I got no letter, Lord Silverbridge."
"Why didn't you get it?"
"That I cannot say, Lord Silverbridge."
"Isabel, if you are so formal, you will kill me."
"Lord Silverbridge, if you are so forward, you will offend me." Then it turned out that no letter from him had reached the house; and as the letter had been addressed to Bruton Street instead of Brook Street, the failure on the part of the post-office was not surprising.
Whether or no she were offended or he killed he remained with her the whole of that afternoon. "Of course I love you," she said. "Do you suppose I should be here with you if I did not, or that you could have remained in the house after what you did just now? I am not given to run into rhapsodies quite so much as you are,—and being a woman perhaps it is as well that I don't. But I think I can be quite as true to you as you are to me."
"I am so much obliged to you for that," he said, grasping at her hand.
"But I am sure that rhapsodies won't do any good. Now I'll tell you my mind."
"You know mine," said Silverbridge.
"I will take it for granted that I do. Your mind is to marry me will ye nill ye, as the people say." He answered this by merely nodding his head and getting a little nearer to her. "That is all very well in its way, and I am not going to say but what I am gratified." Then he did grasp her hand. "If it pleases you to hear me say so, Lord Silverbridge—"