Caroline's eyes filled with tears. She had hard work to keep them from dropping.
"Carine," he said caressingly, "is it quite irrevocable, this attachment?"
The tears went down on the crumbled biscuit. She murmured some words which the doctor but imperfectly caught; only just sufficiently so to gather that it was irrevocable--or that at any rate the young lady thought so. He sighed.
"Listen to me, child. I should never attempt to oppose your inclinations; I should not think of forbidding any marriage that you had set your heart upon. If you have fixed on Mr. Cray, or he on you--it comes to the same--I will not set my will against it. But one thing I must urge upon you both--to wait."
"Do you dislike Mr. Cray, Uncle Richard?"
"Dislike him! no, child. Have I not made him my partner? I like him personally very much. I don't know whether he has much stability," continued the doctor, in a musing tone, as though he were debating the question with himself. "But let that pass. My objection to him for you, Caroline, is chiefly on a pecuniary score."
"I am sure we shall have enough," she answered, in a lower tone.
"If I give my consent, Carry, I shall give it under protest; and make a bargain with you at the same time."
Caroline lifted her eyes. His voice had turned to a jesting one.
"What protest?---what bargain?" she asked.