'Take my hand once,' she faltered.
Her hand and her whole shape he took, and she with closed eyes let him strain her to his breast.
Their swoon was broken by the opening of the door, where Old Tom
Cogglesby and Lady Jocelyn appeared.
'Gad! he seems to have got his recompense—eh, my lady?' cried Old Tom. However satisfactorily they might have explained the case, it certainly did seem so.
Lady Jocelyn looked not absolutely displeased. Old Tom was chuckling at her elbow. The two principal actors remained dumb.
'I suppose, if we leave young people to settle a thing, this is how they do it,' her ladyship remarked.
'Gad, and they do it well!' cried Old Tom.
Rose, with a deep blush on her cheeks, stepped from Evan to her mother. Not in effrontery, but earnestly, and as the only way of escaping from the position, she said: 'I have succeeded, Mama. He will take what I offer.'
'And what's that, now?' Old Tom inquired.
Rose turned to Evan. He bent and kissed her hand.