"I'm blest if she isn't going to argue," George mumbled. "I don't want to be hard upon you, young woman, but I can't have this sort of thing," he went on sternly. "You desert my dear old aunt, and come back here, and rush into bad company, and you don't even ask my permission. I'm a liberal and broad-minded chap, but I can't stand that."
"How are you going to prevent it?"
"By asserting myself, by putting my foot down. Here am I working and toiling for you. I have sent Robert and Bessie away for a well-earned holiday, and presently vans will be coming for the furniture. It's all for you. I don't think of myself at all. I'm saving the furniture, and handing it over to you at great expense, while you are breaking my heart by making appointments with young Mormons in the dark, and going to such a place as Black Anchor at dead of night, and staying there till morning. That sort of conduct makes men commit murder and suicide, and other things they are sorry for afterwards. But I'm not a criminal, and I'm not passionate. I'm practical, and cool, and—and amiable. I have taken quite a fancy to you, Nellie. Other people don't think much of you, but I can see you have good qualities, only you won't show them. Now I want you to tell me why you wrote to young Sidney, and why you met him last night. Be very careful how you answer, as the whole of your future happiness may depend on it."
"I wanted to clear up the mystery," she said.
"There is no mystery about shameful wickedness. Being about to marry a respectable gentleman, who bears a highly honoured name, upon the last day of this month—"
"Oh, stop! Do please!" cried Nellie appealingly. "We are only playing. We have been fooling all along, and you must have known it. I was always laughing and teasing—have you ever seen me serious, as I am now?"
"You don't mean to tell me you are trying to get out of it—you are not going to keep your promise?"
"What was my promise?"
"That you would marry me on the last day of this month."
"It wasn't put like that. I promised, in fun, to marry you on the thirty-first of September, and, of course, I thought you would have seen through that joke long ago."