“Have you any objection, then, to a full and frank discussion of the matter with me?”
“Great Scott, no! Why do you put such a question?”
“Please sit down, then. The ladies can spare us from the drawing-room a little longer. Dorothy is singing, and Millicent is—er—engaged with her new pet, while Mrs. Grosvenor will not object, I am sure, if we smoke another cigar. Now, to come to the point. I have been thinking matters over during the day, and I have a proposition to make which may commend itself to you. It is no secret to you that I admire your elder daughter very much. Were I your prospective son-in-law, Grosvenor, I would be prepared to take your liabilities on to my own shoulders. And let me say at once that I am not bargaining with you for Dorothy’s hand. You know that I was anxious to pay her my addresses in Ostend, and this Kwantu business was not in existence at that time. You gave a conditional assent to my suit then. Now I am only asking you to exercise a little judicious parental pressure on a charming girl who hardly knows her own mind. I am sure you will not think the less of me because I endeavor to gain my own ends whilst coming to your assistance.”
I whistled loudly in my surprise. I couldn’t help it, but it seemed to annoy Schwartz, who glared at me quite vindictively. The Guv’nor, of course, paid no heed, being accustomed to my interruptions.
“It is awfully good of you,” he said slowly, “and I admit the justice of your contention that your wish to marry Dorothy is nothing new. But I have always held it a fixed principle, which my wife shares with me, that parents should neither force their children to marry for money nor withhold their consent to marriages based on love, unless the drawbacks are out of all reason. As I understand the position, Dorothy did not exactly refuse you at Ostend, but simply declared that she had no wish to leave her home for some years to come?”
“Yes. That is so.”
“Then, if I go to her now, and tell her you stipulate for her hand as a condition for extricating me from—”
“Forgive me,” broke in Schwartz, with a certain prompt candor which did him credit as an actor. “I don’t ask that. I only want your permission to approach her myself.”
“But you had that six months ago.”