‘And it was to avoid countenancing my vagaries that you stayed away?’ she said, with a look of injured innocence.
‘I was very much occupied,’ answered Robert, feeling himself in the wrong.
‘That horrid office! You aren’t thinking of becoming a Clarence, to drown yourself in brandy—that would never do.’
‘No, I have given up all thoughts of that!’
‘You thought, you wretched Redbreast! I thought you knew better.’
‘So I ought,’ said Robert, gravely, ‘but my father wished me to make the experiment, and I must own, that before I looked into the details, there were considerations which—which—’
‘Such considerations as £ s. d.? For shame!’
‘For shame, indeed,’ said the happy Robert. ‘Phœbe judged you truly. I did not know what might be the effect of habit—’ and he became embarrassed, doubtful whether she would accept the assumption on which he spoke; but she went beyond his hopes.
‘The only place I ever cared for is a very small old parsonage,’ she said, with feeling in her tone.