“Why, papa, this is from Tom Rivers! You cannot suppose I would marry him! A silly boy, younger than I am! Tom Rivers is the greatest goose I know.”
“How dare you say so, Eliza?”
“Well, he is. Look at his note! Pink paper and a fancy edge!”
“Stuff! Rivers is young and inexperienced, but he’ll grow older—he is a very nice young fellow, and a capital fox-hunter. You’d be master and mistress too—and that would suit your book, I take it. I want to have you settled near me, Eliza—you are all I have left, or soon will be.”
“But, papa——”
Captain Monk raised his hand for silence.
“You sent that man Hamlyn to me with a proposal for you. Eliza; you know that would not do. Hamlyn’s property lies in the West Indies, his home too, for all I know. He attempted to tell me that he would not take you out there against my consent; but I know better, and what such ante-nuptial promises are worth. It might end in your living there.”
“No, no.”
“What do you say ‘no, no’ for, like a parrot? Circumstances might compel you. I do not like the man, besides.”