She said gently, “Surely not! We have so often conversed on this head! Are we not agreed that there is something very unbecoming in a daughter’s setting up her will in opposition to her parents?”
“In general, yes.”
“And in particular, Charles, when it comes to be a question of her marriage. Her parents must be the best judges of what will be most proper for her. There is something very forward and disagreeable in a girl’s falling in love, as the common phrase is. No doubt underbred persons make quite a practice of it, but I fancy a man of birth and upbringing would prefer to see rather more restraint in the lady he marries. The language you have adopted — forgive me, dear Charles — surely belongs more to the stage than to your mother’s drawing room!”
“Does it?” he said. “Tell me, Eugenia! Had I offered for your hand without the consent of your father, would you have entertained my suit?”
She smiled. “We need not consider absurdities! You, of all men, would not have done so!”
“But if I had?”
“Certainly not,” she replied, with composure.
“I am obliged to you!” he said satirically.
“You should be,” she said. “You would scarcely have wished the future Lady Ombersley to have been a female without reserve or filial obedience!”
His eyes were very hard and keen. “I begin to understand you,” he said.