“Ho! So that’s it, is it?” said Sir Thomas. “Well, well, you had better come into my library, my lord, I suppose!”
When Sir Thomas presently rejoined his ladies, and they had watched the Viscount riding away, Marianne asked if he had been showing his Indian treasures to his lordship.
“Ay, that was it,” replied Sir Thomas, chuckling. But when Marianne had left the room, he said to his wife, with one of his cracks of mirth: “Indian treasures! It wasn’t any Indian treasure his lordship came after!”
“Good heavens!” she exclaimed. “You cannot, surely, mean that he has made an offer for Marianne?”
“That’s it. Came to ask my permission to pay his addresses to her, just as he ought.”
“But he has only been acquainted with her a few days!”
“What’s that got to say to anything? I knew my mind five minutes after I met you, my lady!”
“She is too young! Why, she is not yet out!”
“Ay, so I told him. I said we could not sanction any engagement until she had seen a bit of the world.”
She regarded him with suspicion. “Sir Thomas, do you mean to tell me you gave him permission to pay his addresses?”