“But after three years of separation from the youth whom she parted with in her childhood, may not your daughter have changed her mind?”
“Oh, no!” earnestly replied the father.
“But you cannot know this until the young pair meet again. Suppose now, for instance, that when Miss Force sees the youth she may not like the idea of marrying him? What, in such a case, would be your line of policy?”
“I should have no policy. My dear daughter’s happiness should be my first consideration, and the marriage could not go on.”
“Exactly. That is just what I should expect of you,” said the colonel, approvingly.
“Good fellow!” thought, honest Abel Force, admiringly.
“But such is not likely to be the case, colonel. She is quite fond of him as he is of her.”
“Quite so,” assented the colonel, as they turned and walked toward the house.
On reaching it, Mr. Force went in; but Col. Anglesea excused himself, and remained on the outside. He wanted to walk up and down.
Here was the very heiress he had been in search of right under his eyes all the time, and he had never seen her. He had thought her a child of about fourteen years of age, and here she was sixteen, and considered marriageable.