Then, Sir, let me tell you, had you been less upon your defiances, they would not have been irritated so much against you. But nobody ever heard, that avowed despite to the relations of a person was a proper courtship, either to that person, or to her friends.
Well, Madam, all that I know is, that their malice against me is such, that, if you determine to sacrifice me, you may be reconciled when you please.
And all I know, Sir, is, that if I do give my father the power of a negative, and he will be contented with that, it will be but my duty to give it him; and if I preserve one to myself, I shall break through no obligation to you.
Your duty to your capricious brother, not to your father, you mean, Madam.
If the dispute lay between my brother and me at first, surely, Sir, a father may choose which party he will take.
He may, Madam—but that exempts him not from blame for all that, if he take the wrong—
Different people will judge differently, Mr. Lovelace, of the right and the wrong. You judge as you please. Shall not others as they please? And who has a right to controul a father's judgment in his own family, and in relation to his own child?
I know, Madam, there is no arguing with you. But, nevertheless, I had hoped to have made myself some little merit with you, so as that I might not have been the preliminary sacrifice to a reconciliation.
Your hope, Sir, had been better grounded if you had had my consent to my abandoning of my father's house—
Always, Madam, and for ever, to be reminded of the choice you would have made of that damn'd Solmes—rather than—