"Has Mr. Fox called lately?"
"No, sir, not for some little time."
"Will you oblige me by seeing him and being civil if he calls again?"
"Why, papa, I thought you did not wish me to see him."
"Circumstances have altered since then. Is he very disagreeable to you?"
"Well, papa, I have scarcely thought of him, but to tell you the truth when he has been here on business I have involuntarily thought of a mousing cat, or the animal he is named after on the scent of a hen-roost. But of course I can be civil or even polite to him if you wish it."
A spasm of pain crossed her father's face and he put his hand hastily to his head, a frequent act of late. He rose and took a few turns up and down the room, muttering:
"Curse it all, I must tell her. Half knowledge is always dangerous, and is sure to lead to blunders, and there must be no blunders now."
Stopping abruptly before his daughter, he said, "He has proposed for your hand."
An expression of disgust flitted across Edith's face, and she replied quickly:
"We both have surely but one answer to such a proposition from him."