"I like to be told it."
"Well, then"—with a dramatic pause—"we are going to have a wedding in the family!"
"My dear girl!" cries he, smiling very good-naturedly, and with a sensation that, though not violent, is the reverse of annoyance. "Hurrah! So he has come at last! Who is he? How dark you have kept him!"
Cecilia shakes her head and gives a short and rosy laugh.
"Oh, it is not I! You are wide of the mark."
"Your father?"—in a shocked voice.
He has a confused and illogical feeling that a second marriage on the part of Mr. Wilson would be a slight upon Amelia's memory.
"Father!"—with an accent that plainly shows him he is still further afield than in his first conjecture—"poor father! No, indeed; Heaven forbid! Fancy me with a stepmother!"
She pauses to give a shudder at the idea, while Jim gapes blankly at her, wondering whether she has gone off her head.
"Oh no; it is neither father nor I! No wonder you look mystified. It is—Sybilla!"