“You are unjust to yourself, Mr. Dempsey,” said Darcy, good-humoredly, “to rest a claim to our gratitude on any single instance of kindness; trust me that we recognize the whole debt.”
“But it's not that,” rejoined Paul, with a shake of the head. “Lord bless us! how close women are about these things,” muttered he to himself. “There is nothing for it but candor, I suppose, eh?”
This being put in the form of a direct question, and the Knight having as freely assented, Paul resumed,—“Well, here it is. Being now at the head of an ancient name, and very pretty independence,—Bicknell has seen the papers,—I have been thinking of that next step a man takes who would wish to—wish to-hand down a little race of Dempseys. You understand?” Darcy smiled approvingly, and Paul continued: “And as conformity of temper, taste, and habits are the surest pledges of such felicity, I have set the eyes of my affections upon—Miss Darcy.”
So little prepared was the Knight for what was coming, that up to that moment he had been listening with a smile of easy enjoyment; but when the last word was spoken, he started as if he had been stung by a reptile, nor could all his habitual self-control master the momentary flush of irritation that covered his face.
“I know,” said Paul, with a dim consciousness that his proposition was but half acceptable, “that we are not exactly, so to say, the same rank and class; but the Dempseys are looking up, and—”
“'The Darcys looking down,' you would add,” said the Knight, with a gleam of his habitual humor in his eye.
“And, like the buckets in a well, the full and empty ones meet half-way,” added Dempsey, laughing. “I know well, as I said before, we are not the same kind of people, and perhaps this would have deterred me from indulging any thoughts on the subject, but for a chance, a bit of an accident, as a body may call it, that gave me courage.”
“This is the very temple of candor, Mr. Dempsey,” said the Knight, smiling. “Pray proceed, and let us hear the source of your encouragement; what was it?”
“Say, who was it, rather,” interposed Paul.
“Be it so, then. Who was it? You have only made my curiosity stronger.”