“Thank you; but suppose I have my own reasons for going?”
He is not a deep fellow; there is no deceit in the lad. All his faults are uppermost, which makes them bearable.
“Come, out with it. Better make a clean breast to me. It will not be the first time.”
“Well, then—ahem!”—twisting his sash and looking down with most extraordinary modesty,—“the fact is, she wished it.”
“Who?”
“The lady you know of. In truth, I may as well tell you, for I want you to speak up for me to her father, and also to break it to my governor. I've taken your advice and been and gone and done for myself.”
“Married!” for his manner was so queer that I should not have wondered at even that catastrophe.
“Not quite, but next door to it. Popped and been accepted. Yes, since Friday, I have been an engaged man, Doctor.”
Behind his foolishness was some natural feeling, mixed with a rather comical awe of his own position.
For me, I was a good deal surprised; yet he might have come to a worse end. To a rich young fellow of twenty-one, the world is full of many more dangerous pitfalls than matrimony. So I expressed myself in the customary congratulations, adding that I concluded the lady was the one I had seen?