“Tell me, pray, what. You frighten me.”
“My father is going to marry again.”
At first Daniel was amazed. Then, recalling at once the gradual transformation of the count, he said,—
“Oh, oh, oh! That explains every thing.”
But Henrietta interrupted him; and, making a great effort, she repeated to him in a half-stifled voice almost literally her conversation with her father. When she had ended, Daniel said,—
“You have guessed right, Miss Henrietta. Your father evidently does propose to you a bargain.”
“Ah! but that is horrible.”
“He wanted you to understand, that, if you would consent to his marriage, he would consent”—
Shocked at what he was going to add, he stopped; but Henrietta said boldly,—
“To ours, you mean,—to ours? Yes, so I understood it; and that was my reason for sending for you to advise me.”