“In Heaven’s name! why surprised? Is it surprising that I should wish to make Cordelia Chester my wife?”
“Not at all; but I am surprised that you should for one moment suppose that I would urge her to marry against her will. In fact, my boy, I gave to her father, when he lay dying, a solemn promise that I would never do any such thing. She should not be asked to marry without love.”
“Oho-ho-oo!” The angry man laughed coarsely and contemptuously. “If you stick to that you’ll be likely to send your fair ward to a grand market! Do you know whom she will marry if she weds with the man of her heart’s desire?”
“Boy! What do you mean?”
“Upon my word! I believe you know very well what I mean. Don’t you know which way the girl is drifting? If you do not, it is time you opened your eyes!”
“Matthew,” said the earl, drawing himself up proudly, and looking his grandson straight in the face, “I will not profess to misunderstand you. You are speaking, or thinking, of Percy Maitland. I am only sorry that he is not of gentle blood; for I tell you frankly, were he so, I should not hesitate an instant to bestow upon him Cordelia’s hand, provided they both wished it.”
“Which means, I suppose, that you would not give that hand to me?”
“If you will have it, boy, I answer you just as frankly, yes.”
“By —! I begin to understand you!” the young lord exclaimed, prefacing the words with an imprecation the like of which had not been uttered in the earl’s presence for years. “And let me tell you, old man—”
“Hush! Oh, boy! boy! have you no heart?”