“If you wish it.”
“Can you doubt it?” were the necessary lover-like rejoinders; and Coverdale returned to his friend, who looked especially puzzled and slightly provoked.
“Now be silent!” exclaimed Hazlehurst, as Harry was about, with the greatest volubility, to plunge at once in medias res. “You have lived amongst women till you’ve learned to chatter like them, I think. I shall never bring you to the point, unless you will let me cross-examine you.”
“Fire away, then; only look sharp, for your sister must not be kept waiting,” was the reply.
“You’ve grown wonderfully polite and attentive all of a sudden,” returned Arthur, sarcastically. “But now listen to me. Has Crane made Alice an offer?”
Harry replied in the affirmative.
“Did she refuse him?”
“Of course she did,” was the disdainful rejoinder.
“I don’t see any of course in it,” returned Hazlehurst, moodily. “My father is resolved on the match: Alice has been brought up to obey him implicitly, and the habit of obedience is very strong in such a gentle, yielding nature as hers.”
“If she is gentle and yielding I’m not!” exclaimed Harry, vehemently; “and with your support, and the knowledge that his daughter’s happiness is at stake, Mr. Hazlehurst must listen to reason.”