“That,” said Mr. Liversedge, “is to put the matter with vulgar bluntness, Mr. Ware.”
“I fear I must wound your susceptibilities more deeply still! It is not your niece who makes this demand, but you, and the whole affair is a fudge!”
Mr. Liversedge smiled at him with great patience. “My dear sir, you wrong me, indeed you do!”
“I am very sure I do not! You have owned to me—”
A plump, uplifted hand checked him. “Between these four walls, Mr. Ware!” Liversedge said, with a return to his reproachful manner.
The Duke stared at him. Suddenly he said: “And what, sir, if I were to express my willingness to marry your niece? Have you thought of that?”
“Of everything!” Liversedge assured him affably. “I, of course, with my niece’s happiness in mind, should be overjoyed. But it would not do for you at all, Mr. Ware, and your noble relatives, I fear, would do what lay in their power to prevent such an unequal match. Alas that it should be so, but it is the way of the world, after all, and if I were your father, sir, I confess I should strain every nerve to put a bar between you and my poor Belinda. Love-begotten, you know. Dear me, yes! Quite ineligible! You are young, and impetuous, but I feel sure your relatives must see it as I do myself.”
“Mr. Liversedge,” said the Duke, “I do not believe that your niece has the least notion of suing me for breach of promise! You think to out-jockey me, to take me in like a goose, in fact! This is all a hoax! I daresay your niece knows nothing of the matter!”
Mr. Liversedge shook his head sorrowfully. “It pains me, Mr. Ware, to meet with this unmerited mistrust! it pains me excessively! I did not look to have my good faith so doubted; I did not expect, in face of all that has passed between you and my unfortunate niece, to be met with what I must—reluctantly, believe me!—term callousness! If you were an older man, sir, I should be strongly tempted to request you to name your friends. As it is, I shall content myself with bringing before you irrefutable proof of the integrity of my actions.”
He rose to his feet as he spoke, and the Duke followed suit rather warily. Liversedge smiled his understanding, and said: “Have no fear, Mr. Ware! A guest under my roof, you know, I must hold sacred, however moved I may be. Not, I beg you to believe, that I lay the least claim to this roof. But the principle holds! Pray be seated, for I shall not be long gone!”