“It is the only guide I recognize. If you are going to argue the question, and your arguments are to prevail, they must be addressed to my self-interest.”
“I cannot think you quite mean that, Mr. Conolly.”
“Well, waive the point for the present: I am open to conviction. You know what my mind is. I have not changed it since I saw your father this morning. You think I am wrong?”
“Not wrong. I do not say for a moment that you are wrong. I——”
“Mistaken. Ill-advised. Any term you like.”
“I certainly believe that you are mistaken. Let me urge upon you first the fact that you are causing a daughter to disobey her father. Now that is an awful fact. May I—appealing to that righteousness in which I am sure you are not naturally deficient—ask you whether you have reflected on that fact?”
“It is not half so awful to me as the fact of a father forcing his daughter’s inclinations. However, awful is hardly the word for the occasion. Let us come to business, Mr. Lind. I want to marry your sister because I have fallen in love with her. You object. Have you any other motive than aristocratic exclusiveness?”
“Indeed, you quite mistake. I have no such feeling. We are willing to treat you with every possible consideration.”
“Then why object?”
“Well, we are bound to look to her happiness. We cannot believe that it would be furthered by an unsuitable match. I am now speaking to you frankly as a man of the world.”