"Oh! they are not exactly pleasant things; they are true, though. Besides, I have not come here just to say pleasant things to you, but to talk to you seriously."
"Seriously?"
"Yes! I have undertaken a mission for some one else. I have promised to speak to you to the best of my ability in the name of some one who did not care to speak for himself."
"Who is this some one else?"
"Henry! He begged me to ask you whether you would authorise him to ask grandmamma for your hand?"
"My hand! Henry?" she exclaimed, and her accent expressed her bewilderment.
"Is that so very astonishing?"
"Why, yes!—it is as though he were my brother—Henry!"
"Well, but he is not your brother, nevertheless; therefore do not let us trouble about him as a brother, but as a lover. What is your answer?"
"My answer! why does Henry apply to me first? Instead of asking my permission to speak to grandmamma, he ought to have asked grandmamma's permission to speak to me."