And now he felt that he would have preferred some outbreak on Bram’s part to this stony silence.
“A wedding, Sir?” Bram’s face clouded with perplexity.—Page 70.
Even Josiah Cornthwaite was puzzled by Bram’s reception of the news. The young man seemed absolutely unmoved by the fresh proof of his employer’s confidence given in the information that he was to be sent to London on important business. He grew even uneasy as Bram’s silence continued, or was broken only by the briefest and coldest of answers. He looked from his son to Bram, and perceived that there was some understanding between them. And his fears grew apace. He shortened the stay in the dining-room, therefore, and letting Mr. Hibbs and Chris enter the drawing-room together, he took Bram up the stairs, with the excuse of showing him the view of the town from one of the windows.
Bram was shrewd enough to guess that he was to be “pumped.”
“This news about my son’s intended marriage seems to have taken you by surprise, Elshaw,” said Mr. Cornthwaite as they stood together looking out on the blurred lights of the town below.
“Well, sir, it has,” admitted Bram briefly.
“But you know he is twenty-six, an age at which a young man who can afford it ought to be thinking of marrying.”
“Oh, yes.”
“You thought, perhaps, that such a volatile fellow would be scarcely likely to make such a sensible choice as he has done?” went on Josiah with an air of bland indulgence, but with some anxiety in his eyes.