"And were accepted?"
"The reverse."
"Rejected—you—my son, rejected?"
"Finally so—or for the present shall we say?" replied Cosmo, lighting a pipe by the old and elaborate process, to conceal his agitation. "A wilful little jade she is as ever I knew. Evidently has no fancy for me, or for increasing the number of his Majesty's lieges under canvas, or for seeing the world in a baggage-waggon, as a lady attached to a regiment of the line."
The courtly old lady gazed at her son almost mournfully; for this mocking brusquerie, acquired in the Pavilion of the Prince Regent, but ill accorded with her old-fashioned ideas of gentle bearing.
"You have been wrong, Cosmo," said she gravely; "you have been too hasty—too abrupt."
"Now, faith, do you think so, really?"
"It was absurd to propose for any girl, especially a young lady of family and fortune, after a two days' acquaintance."
"Egad, my most respected mamma, in London, I've known a score of women of the first fashion, who would have eloped with me for better or worse, and taken post horses for Gretna, on a two hours' acquaintance."
"Oh, Cosmo!"