"Thank you. Well, then, there is an attachment between Mary and young
Clifford."
Bartley was on his guard directly.
"Her happiness is at stake. That gives me a right to interfere, and say, 'be kind to her.'"
"Am I not kind to her? Was any parent ever kinder? But I must be wise as well as kind. Colonel Clifford can disinherit his son."
At this point the young people ventured to peep and listen, taking advantage of the circumstance that both Hope and Bartley were at some distance, with their backs turned to the workshop.
So they both heard Hope say,
"Withdraw your personal opposition to the match, and the other difficulty can be got over. If you want to be kind to a young woman, it is no use feeding her ambition and her avarice, for these are a man's idols. A woman's is love."
Mary wafted the speaker a furtive kiss.
"To enrich that dear child after your death, thirty years hence, and break her heart in the flower of her youth, is to be unkind to her; and if you are unkind to her, our compact is broken."
"Unkind to her," said Bartley. "What male parent has ever been more kind, more vigilant? Sentimental weakness is another matter. My affection is more solid. Can I oblige you in anything that is business?"