“I am glad to hear you are so happy,” retorted Dick bitterly. “There’s certainly not much to trouble you.”
“No,” assented the Admiral, “not much. I got out of it in time; and here—well, here everything pleases me. I am plain in my tastes. A propos, you have never asked me how I liked my daughter?”
“No,” said Dick roundly; “I certainly have not.”
“Meaning you will not. And why, Dick? She is my daughter, of course; but then I am a man of the world and a man of taste, and perfectly qualified to give an opinion with impartiality—yes, Dick, with impartiality. Frankly, I am not disappointed in her. She has good looks; she has them from her mother. She is devoted, quite devoted to me——”
“She is the best woman in the world!” broke out Dick.
“Dick,” cried the Admiral, stopping short; “I have been expecting this. Let us—let us go back to the ‘Trevanion Arms,’ and talk this matter out over a bottle.”
“Certainly not,” said Dick. “You have had far too much already.”
The parasite was on the point of resenting this; but a look at Dick’s face, and some recollections of the terms on which they had stood in Paris, came to the aid of his wisdom and restrained him.
“As you please,” he said; “although I don’t know what you mean—nor care. But let us walk, if you prefer it. You are still a young man; when you are my age—— But, however, to continue. You please me, Dick; you have pleased me from the first; and to say truth, Esther is a trifle fantastic, and will be better when she is married. She has means of her own, as of course you are aware. They come, like the looks, from her poor, dear, good creature of a mother. She was blessed in her mother. I mean she shall be blessed in her husband, and you are the man, Dick, you and not another. This very night I will sound her affections.”