“Well, my dear, you can speak as much as you like; but as for expecting me to pay any attention just at this moment when I am in the agonies of packing! Kneel on the lid, Felicie, and I’ll try and turn the key.”
“Letitia, please, just a moment. There’s something which I want to tell you—to consult you about.”
“You are the oddest creature in the world, Mary Hill. Consult me! when the carriage is nearly at the door, and all my things to pack. C’est fini at last, Felicie—Fermez le bonnet-box, too, and give me my keys. Well, what is it, Mary? You don’t speak.”
“I can’t tell you before anybody,” said Mary in a low voice. “I’ve got a letter——”
“Oh, you’ve got a letter! I can’t send Felicie away, because there are so many little things to do—but she doesn’t count. I say all sorts of things before her. Is it from one of the boys?”
“No, Letitia. Oh, please, a moment—it’s very important.”
“It’s from Ralph, and he’s asked you to marry him? I never thought he was such a fool. And I hope you’re not going to be a fool to snap at him—with not a penny between you,” Letitia added, growing red. “That’s all the advice I am going to give. You’re old enough to judge for yourself—but neither you nor he must look for anything from us. Neither money nor influence—we shall do nothing for you—nothing! You may as well know that from the first.”
Mary had been white and trembling with agitation; now she turned red with one of those sudden fits of exasperation which attack even the mildest. To have this said to her before the waiting maid, who concealed a smile and a look of intelligence which had flashed into her eyes under a demure gravity, was enough to have upset the temper of a saint.
“It is not from Ralph,” she said very quietly.
“Oh, it’s not from Ralph. Well, that’s a very good thing. Felicie, attachez les straps—or leave them for Robert to do, if you like—and bring me my cloak. Well, so it is not from Ralph, Mary? Then who is it from? It’s a proposal one can see from your face. Take it whoever it comes from, Mary. You haven’t time, my dear, to pick and choose.”