"Wait. We'll tell you when to go. You haven't yet got my point. Perhaps I haven't made it clear. I'm not interested in your hopes—"
"No, sir; of course not; nor I in yours."
"I haven't inquired as to that—but we'll let it pass. We're both apparently interested in my son."
I gave a little bow of assent.
"I said I wished to make an appeal to you."
I made another little bow of assent.
"It's on his behalf. You could do him a great kindness. You could make him understand—I gather that he's under your influence to some degree; you're a clever girl, I can see that—but you could make him understand that in fancying he'll marry you he's starting out on a task in which there's no hope whatever."
"But there is."
"Pardon me, there isn't. By your own showing there isn't. You've laid down conditions that will never be fulfilled."
"What makes you say that?"