“Dr. Greydon, I have now been a guest at your house for two weeks, and under trying circumstances to your household. I feel that I owe my life to your tender care and solicitation. My father could do no more for me; but I hope that you will not consider I am presuming on your good nature, when I unfold to you an affair of my heart; and ask of you one of the greatest favors that one man can bestow upon another.
“Dr. Greydon,” continued Barclugh, “ever since I first met your daughter, I have esteemed her as one of the most talented and beautiful women in this country, and since I first was a guest in your home, I have learned to love her; I ask you to give her to me for my wife. My position and means and prospects warrant me in making this request and I hope that I may deserve the great honor that I ask you to confer upon me.”
After a moment of silent reflection, Dr. Greydon replied most reverently and in the peculiar language of his Quaker persuasion, which he used only on occasions of great emotion:
“Thou hast been good enough for me to invite thee to my home. If I had not thought thee good enough to be my son, thou shouldst not have been my guest; but my daughter must give thee her own consent before thou canst have mine.”
At the conclusion of these solemn injunctions, Barclugh arose, silently shook the hand of Dr. Greydon and retired to his bed-chamber for meditation.
CHAPTER XXXII
During the evening after Barclugh had asked the consent of Dr. Greydon, an air of expectancy pervaded all except Mollie. Dr. Greydon had told his wife about Barclugh’s request and she realized the importance of this day to her darling daughter, who was one of the flowers of the earth in her sight.
A mother rejoices in the proper selection of a husband by her daughter, and Mrs. Greydon, one of those good, wholesome souls, believed in whatever her husband proposed, so that when the Doctor informed his wife of Barclugh’s intentions, she simply said: