“What, of marriage?”
Ruperta nodded archly.
“To a child like you? Scandalous! No, for, after all, you look nineteen or twenty. And who is the highwayman that thinks to rob me of my precious girl?”
“Well, papa, whoever he is, he will have to wait three years, and so I told him. It is my cousin Compton.”
“What!” cried Richard Bassett, so loudly that the girl started back dismayed. “That little monkey have the impudence to offer marriage to my daughter? Surely, Ruperta, you have offered him no encouragement?”
“N—no.”
“Your mother promised me nothing but common civility should pass between you and that young gentleman.”
“She promised for me, but she could not promise for him—poor little fellow!”
“Marry a son of the man who has robbed and insulted your father!”
“Oh, papa! is it so? Are you sure you did not begin?”