"Wait, I said, Bettina," roared the doctor.
"You need not rave at me, Richard. I am not as deaf as a post. Who says anything about 'fate?' Fate, indeed! don't talk of fate to me. Where's your common-sense gone?"
"Wait, I said, Aunt Bett! Wa-a-a-it! I tell them they must wait."
"No," said Aunt Bett. "Better break it off."
"I don't think they will," returned the doctor.
Miss Bettina turned her eyes on Caroline. That young lady, left to herself, had pretty nearly done for the damask napkin. She dreaded but one person in the world, and that was stern Aunt Bettina. Miss Bettina rose in her slow stately fashion, and turned Caroline's drooping face towards her.
"What in the world has put it into your head to think of Mark Cray?"
"I didn't think of him before he thought of me," was poor Caroline's excuse, which, as a matter of course, Miss Davenal did not catch.
"Has it ever occurred to you to reflect, Caroline, how very serious a step is that of settlement in life?"
"We shall get along, Aunt Bettina."