“It is very good of you, Miss Seymour; you are the only person who has said a kind word——”
“A kind word! Can you expect kind words?” begins Southwold, in great ire.
“My dear Wilfrid, when you afflict and disgrace us so,” says his aunt.
Bertram silences them with an impatient movement.
“Allow me to speak. My marriage will not disgrace you, for it will not take place——”
“Thank God!” cries Lady Southwold.
“It is not I who have withdrawn. It is—it is—Miss Brown, with the consent of her family. But I did not come to speak of this matter, which is one purely personal; one with which I was not aware you were acquainted. I came to apologise to Lord Southwold for my rudeness to him a little while ago.”
“All right, all right,” replies that choleraic but amiable person. “I’m afraid I used strong language myself; but really your pig-headed illusions are so uncommonly trying to a plain, ordinary man like myself——”
“And you haven’t refused the inheritance, Wilfrid?” asks his aunt, in great anxiety.
“I have refused, certainly,” replies Bertram; “I have signed and sealed refusal.”