But this did not at all satisfy her; she insisted on having a coach directly, and gave him some hints, as if she would not marry without one; which very much nettling him, he desired she would remember her promise, which was absolutely given, without the least mention of a coach being made.
'I would not have you,' said she, 'insist too much on that promise, lest I should be provoked to give you the same answer Leonora, in the play, gives to her importunate lover—
"That boasted promise ties me not to time;
And bonds without a date, they say, are void."
Mr. Munden could not now contain his temper—he told her he could not have expected such treatment after his long services, and her favourable acceptance of them—that he thought he merited, at least, a shew of kindness from her; and, in fine, that she did not act towards him as became a woman of honour.
This was a reproach which the spirit of Miss Betsy was too high to bear; she, blushing with indignation, and casting the most disdainful look upon him, was about to make some answer, which, perhaps, in the humour he then was, would have occasioned him to retort in such a manner as might have broken off all the measures which had been so long concerting, if a sudden interruption had not prevented it.
Mr. Francis Thoughtless, not knowing anything of Mr. Munden's being there, and happening to pass that way, called on his sister, to know if she was ready to go to his brother's, it being near dinner-time; he immediately perceived, by both their countenances, that some brulée had happened between them; and, on his asking, in a gay manner, the cause of it, Mr. Munden made no scruple to relate the sum of what had passed. The brother of Miss Betsy, though in his heart very much vexed with her, affected to treat what Mr. Munden had said, as a bagatelle; and, calling to his sister's footman to get a hackney-coach to the door, made them both go with him to his brother's; saying, they would there adjust every thing.