"You said you were going to be quiet in a moment," he resumed presently. "Are you quiet now?"
"Yes, my lord, quiet and happy."
"Are you glad I spoke to you in the dark?"
"Yes."
"You will be more glad that it was in the dark directly. Is Charles Ravenshoe quite the same to you as other men?"
"No," said Mary; "that he most certainly is not. I could have answered that question to you in the brightest daylight."
"Humph!" said Lord Saltire. "I wish I could see him and you comfortably married, do you know? I hope I speak plain enough. If I don't, perhaps you will be so good as to mention it, and I'll try to speak a little plainer."
"Nay; I quite understand you. I wonder if you will understand me, when I say that such a thing is utterly and totally out of the question."
"I was afraid so. You are a pair of simpletons. My dear daughter (you must let me call you so), you must contemplate the contingency I have hinted at in the dark. I know that the best way to get a man rejected, is to recommend him; I therefore, only say, that John Marston loves you with his whole heart and soul, and that he is a protégé of mine."
"I am speaking to you as I would to my own father. John Marston asked me to be his wife last Christmas, and I refused him."