‘You think me not to be trusted with them.’
‘I do not.’
Mervyn ground his teeth, answering, ‘Very well, sir, I stand indebted to you. I should have imagined, whatever your opinion of me, you would have considered your favourite sky-blue governess an immaculate guardian, or can you be contented with nothing short of a sisterhood?’
‘Robert,’ said Phœbe, fearing lest worse should follow, ‘Mervyn has always been good to us; I trust to him.’ And her clear eyes were turned on the eldest brother with a grateful confidence that made him catch her hand with something between thanks and triumph, as he said—
‘Well said, little one! There, sir, are you satisfied?’
‘I must be,’ replied Robert.
Sir Bevil, able to endure no longer, broke in with some intelligence from the newspaper, which he had been perusing ever since his unlucky appeal to his lady. Every one thankfully accepted this means of ending the discussion.
‘Well, Miss,’ was Juliana’s good night, ‘you have attained your object. I hope you may find it answer.’
‘Yes,’ added Augusta, ‘when Mervyn brings home that Frenchwoman, you will wish you had been less tenacious.’
‘That’s all an idea of yours,’ said Juliana. ‘She’ll have punishment enough in Master Mervyn’s own temper. I wouldn’t keep house for him, no, not for a week.’