Scythrop now saw that the affair was growing serious. To have clapped his hand upon his father's mouth, to have entreated him to be silent, would, in the first place, not have made him so; and, in the second, would have shown a dread of being overheard by somebody. His only resource, therefore, was to try to drown Mr Glowry's voice; and, having no other subject, he continued his description of the ear, raising his voice continually as Mr Glowry raised his.
'When your cousin Marionetta,' said Mr Glowry, 'whom you profess to love—whom you profess to love, sir—'
'The internal canal of the ear,' said Scythrop, 'is partly bony and partly cartilaginous. This internal canal is—'
'Is actually in the house, sir; and, when you are so shortly to be—as
I expect—'
'Closed at the further end by the membrana tympani—'
'Joined together in holy matrimony—'
'Under which is carried a branch of the fifth pair of nerves—'
'I say, sir, when you are so shortly to be married to your cousin
Marionetta—'
'The cavitas tympani—'
A loud noise was heard behind the book-case, which, to the astonishment of Mr Glowry, opened in the middle, and the massy compartments, with all their weight of books, receding from each other in the manner of a theatrical scene, with a heavy rolling sound (which Mr Glowry immediately recognised to be the same which had excited his curiosity,) disclosed an interior apartment, in the entrance of which stood the beautiful Stella, who, stepping forward, exclaimed, 'Married! Is he going to be married? The profligate!'