"You thought her the daughter of a gentleman!"
"Hardly. I thought her a lady, and such I think her still."
"Then you mean to go on with it?"
"Mother dear," said Alister, taking her by the hand, "give me a little time. Not that I am in any doubt—but the news has been such a blow to me that—"
"It must have been!" said the mother.
"—that I am afraid of answering you out of the soreness of my pride, and Ian says the Truth is never angry."
"I am quite willing you should do nothing in a hurry," said the mother.
She did not understand that he feared lest, in his indignation for
Mercy, he should answer his mother as her son ought not.
"I will take time," he replied. "And here is Ian to help me!"
"Ah! if only your father were here!"