Involuntarily Mr. Thornton turned to see if it was the portrait come down from the canvas, the attitude was so like what he once had seen in the Mildred of other days. But the picture still hung upon the wall, and it was another Mildred, saying to him indignantly:
“He was not coaxed into it! I never dreamed of such a thing until Judge Howell hinted it to me, not twenty minutes before Lilian surprised us as she did.”
“Judge Howell,” Mr. Thornton repeated, beginning to get angry. “I suspected as much. I know him of old. Nineteen years ago, he was a poorer man than I, and he conceived the idea of marrying his only daughter to the wealthy Mr. Thornton, and though he counts his money now by hundreds of thousands, he knows there is power and influence in the name of Thornton still, and he does not think my son a bad match for the unknown foundling he took from the street, and has grown weary of keeping!”
“The deuce I have!” was hoarsely whispered in the adjoining room, where the old Judge sat, hearing every word of that strange conversation.
He had not gone up the mountain as he intended, and had reached Beechwood just as Mildred was coming down the stairs. Lucy told him Mr. Thornton was there, and, thinking it was Lawrence, he went into his library to put away some business papers ere joining his guest in the drawing-room. While there he heard the words, “You have just received a letter from my son?”
“Bob Thornton, as I live!” he exclaimed. “What brought him here? I don’t like the tone of his voice, and I wouldn’t wonder if something was in the wind. Anyway, I’ll just wait and see, and if he insults Mildred, he’ll find himself histed out of this house pretty quick!”
So saying, the Judge sat down in a position where not a word escaped him, and, by holding on to his chair and swearing little bits of oaths to himself, he managed to keep tolerably quiet while the conversation went on.
“I will be plain with you, Miss Howell,” Mr. Thornton said. “My heart is set upon Lawrence’s marrying Lilian. It will kill her if he does not, and I am here to ask you, as a favor to me and to Lilian, to refuse his suit. Will you do it?”
“No!” dropped involuntarily from Mildred’s lips, and was responded to by a heavy blow of the fist upon Judge Howell’s fat knee.
“Well done for Spitfire!” he said. “She’s enough for old Bobum yet. I’ll wait a trifle longer before I fire my gun.”