"But you have expectations."
"Nay, not I."
"I beg your pardon."
"Methinks I should know, Sir. What expectations have I? and from whom?"
Houseman fidgeted on his seat, and then, with some hesitation, replied,—
"Well, from two that I know of."
"You are jesting, methinks, good Mr. Houseman," said she, reproachfully.
"Nay, dear Mistress Kate, I wish you too well to jest on such a theme."
The lawyer then fidgeted again on his seat in silence,—sign of an inward struggle,—during which Kate's eye watched him with some curiosity. At last his wavering balance inclined towards revealing something or other.
"Mistress Kate," said he, "my wife and I are both your faithful friends and humble admirers. We often say you would grace a coronet, and wish you were as rich as you are good and beautiful."