“Don’t talk nonsense, Jem—don’t talk nonsense. I’ve sounded Glynne well, and it is too late.”
“What! Do you mean to tell me that she would insist upon having him if you forbade it?” cried the major.
“She thinks that she is bound to him, and that it is impossible to retract, even if she wished.”
“But doesn’t she wish to run back from this wretched business?”
“No, she does not wish to run back from her promise.”
“I don’t believe it,” cried the major, over whose white forehead the veins stood up like a pink network.
“It is true all the same,” said Sir John sadly. “If she had but expressed the slightest wish, I’d have seen Rolph, even at this eleventh hour, and, as he would have called it, the match should be off.”
“I will go and see her myself, Jack. I don’t want to insult you, my dear brother, but she does look up to me and my opinion a little. Let me try and win her to my way of thinking, and let’s get this wretched business stopped. She would never be happy, I am sure.”
“Go and see her, Jem, by all means.”
“You give me your leave?”