Tony flung away his cigar with impatience; he was irritated, for he bethought him of his own case, and how it was quite possible that no such scruples of delicacy would have interfered with him if he could only have managed to find out what was passing in Alice's mind.
“I 'm sure,” said M'Gruder, “you agree with me, Tony; and if she says, 'Don't hold me to my pledge,' I have no right to ask why.”
A short shrug of the shoulders was all Tony's answer.
“Not that I 'd object to your saying a word for me, Tony, if there was to be any hope from it,—saying what a warm friend could say of one he thought well of. You 've been living under the same roof with me, and you know more of my nature, and my ways and my temper, than most men, and mayhap what you could tell her might have its weight.”
“That I know and believe.”
“But don't think only of me, Tony. She's more to be considered than I am; and if this bargain was to be unhappy for her, it would only be misery for both of us. You'd not marry your own sweetheart against her own will?”
Tony neither agreed to nor dissented from this remark. The chances were that it was a proposition not so readily solved, and that he 'd like to have thought over it.
“No; I know you better than that,” said M'Gruder, once more.
“Perhaps not,” remarked Tony; but the tone certainly gave no positive assurance of a settled determination. “At all events, I 'll see what I can do for you.”
“If it was that she cares for somebody else that she could n't marry,—that her father disliked, or that he was too poor,—I 'd never say one word; because who can tell what changes may come in life, and the man that could n't support a wife now, in a year or two may be well off and thriving? And if it was that she really liked another,—you don't think that likely? Well, neither do I; but I say it here because I want to take in every consideration of the question; but I repeat, if it were so, I 'd never utter one word against it. Your mother, Tony, is more likely to find that out than any of us; and if she says Dolly's heart is given away already, that will be enough. I 'll not trouble nor torment her more.”