Mrs. Shapleigh raised her hands and let them fall in her lap in despair.
“For a girl to acknowledge such a thing! Now, if you wanted to be mistress of Deerchase, there’d be no harm in it; but to want to marry a man because you are in love with him! Dear, dear, dear! what is the world coming to?�
Sylvia laughed with shameless merriment at this, and just then the door opened and old Tom came in.
“Mr. Shapleigh,� began Mrs. Shapleigh in a complaining voice, “Sylvia’s not at all like me.�
“Not a bit,� cheerfully assented old Tom.
“She isn’t ashamed to say that she is in love with Richard Skelton, and wants to marry him. Nobody ever heard me say, Mr. Shapleigh, that I was in love with you, or wanted to marry you.�
“No, indeed, madam. It was not worth while. You hung upon me like ivy on a brick wall.�
“La, Mr. Shapleigh, how you talk!�
“And I’m sure, my love, if anybody doubts my devotion to you during your lifetime, they’d never doubt it after you’re dead. I’ll engage to wear more crape and weepers than any ten widowers in the county.�
This always shut Mrs. Shapleigh up. Sylvia gave her father a reproving look, but she was too much used to this kind of thing to take it seriously. Old Tom, though, indulged in his sly rallying too.