“It is usual to do so!” he pointed out.
“It may be punctilious, but it is the greatest folly imaginable, particularly if you mean to contract mumps before you have even had time to offer for her!”
“It would, I collect, be useless to assure you that I did not mean to contract mumps! I had reason to believe that my suit would not be distasteful to her.”
“I expect she was very well disposed toward you,” agreed Sophy cordially. “But she had not then seen Augustus Fawnhope. At least, she had, but it seems that he was covered in spots at that time, so no one could expect her to fall in love with him.”
“I don’t find the reflection precisely comforting, Miss Stanton-Lacy.”
“Call me Sophy! Everyone does, and we are going to become excessively friendly.”
“Are — are we?” he said. “I mean, I am delighted to hear you say so, of course!”
She laughed. “Oh, pray don’t be alarmed! If you still wish to marry Cecilia — and I must tell you that although I thought otherwise before I had met you, I have now made up my mind to it that you would suit capitally — I will say you just how you must go on.”
He could not help smiling. “I am much obliged to you! But if she loves young Fawnhope — ”
“You must, if you please, consider for a moment!” Sophy earnestly. “Only think how it was! No sooner had declared yourself to my uncle than you contracted a ridiculous complaint. She was informed that she was to become your wife — quite gothic, and most ill judged — and along came Augustus Fawnhope, looking, you will own, like a prince of a fairy tale, and what must he do but turn his back on the poor females who were setting their caps at him and fall in love with Cecilia’s beauty! My dear sir, he writes poems in her praise! He calls her a nymph, and says her eyes put stars to shame, and such stuff as that!”