“It looks almost,” said Angeliké, with an innocent little giggle, “as if he wanted to marry her after all.” This was going much farther than she had intended, but Armitage’s arrival had fitted in so miraculously with her plans that she could not allow it to be wasted.
“After all? What do you mean?”
“As if he might be willing even to marry her without a dowry, lord.”
The siren-voice was sweet, and Angeliké was crouching very confidingly close to her father. He shook her off with an oath.
“All-Holy Mother! He has said nothing about it.”
“But perhaps he will, lord; or you might notice something that would enable you to speak.”
“The fellow is not going to refuse my daughter twice!”
“No, lord; but since he has come here, surely he has no wish to refuse? And how could he say anything? Every civilised man knows that it falls to the maiden’s father to speak first. And—and he might not be sorry—just to satisfy his parents——”
“Yes? Plague take the girl, why won’t she speak out?”
“He might not be sorry if you insisted on the marriage, lord.”