'Oh, the will, of course! So I am to be treated like a child? Well, if so, I may prove a wilful and dangerous one!'
Her aunt's report of this conversation made Lord Aberfeldie more than ever anxious for the return of his son.
'You are very mysterious, Allan. You and Olive seem a pair of enigmas,' said Lady Aberfeldie. 'But your father waits you in the library, and perhaps you will condescend to confide in him, if not in me. I must own it will be a fatal thing for your future happiness if Olive thinks you seek her for gain; but for what does Mr. Holcroft so evidently seek her?'
Allan smiled disdainfully.
'I have tried to think, mother dear, that she is not affected by this person Holcroft, but begin to own to myself that "the faith that worketh miracles" is not in me.'
When questioned by his father, Allan made the same reticent reply, that he must see Olive before making any explanations.
'The time has come now, Allan,' said Lord Aberfeldie, 'when you are bound in honour to make your cousin an offer, for in this peculiar entanglement—for such, I grant you, it is—you and she do not stand in the position of most engaged persons.'
'But suppose I have no wish to marry——'
'Absurd—outrageous!'
'Or may not marry at all?'