‘Yes; he is after her!’—with a long breath.
‘Mr. White!’
‘Yes’—then sitting down. ‘I did not think much of it before. They always are after Ada more or less—and she likes it; but it never has come to anything.’
‘Why should it now?’
‘It has! At least, it has gone further than ever anything did before, except Charlie Scott, that ridiculous boy at Beechcroft that William was so angry with, and who married somebody else.’
‘You don’t say that he has proposed to her?’
‘Yes, he has—the man! By a letter this morning, and I could see she expected it—not that that’s any wonder!’
‘But, my dear, she can’t possibly be thinking of it.’
‘Well, I should have said it was impossible; but I see she has not made up her mind. Poor dear Ada! It is too bad to laugh; but she does like the having a real offer at last, and a great Italian castle laid at her feet.’
‘But he isn’t a gentleman! I don’t mean only his birth—and I know he is a good man really—but Jasper said he could feel he was not a gentleman by the way he fell on Richard White before his sister.’