“And if were in love, Charlotte,” said I, somewhat nettled, and recollecting Glencoe’s enthusiastic eulogy of the passion, “if I were in love, is that a matter of jest and laughter? Is the tenderest and most fervid affection that can animate the human breast to be made a matter of cold-hearted ridicule?”
My sister colored. “Certainly not, brother!—nor did I mean to make it so, or to say anything that should wound your feelings. Had I really suspected you had formed some genuine attachment, it would have been sacred in my eyes; but—but,” said she, smiling, as if at some whimsical recollection, “I thought that you—you might be indulging in another little freak of the imagination.”
“Ill wager any money,” cried my father, “he has fallen in love again with some old lady at a window!”
“Oh, no!” cried my dear sister Sophy, with the most gracious warmth; “she is young and beautiful.”
“From what I understand,” said Glencoe, rousing himself, “she must be lovely in mind as in person.”
I found my friends were getting me into a fine scrape. I began to perspire at every pore, and felt my ears tingle.
“Well, but,” cried my father, “who is she?—what is she? Let us hear something about her.”
This was no time to explain so delicate a matter. I caught up my hat, and vanished out of the house.
The moment I was in the open air, and alone, my heart upbraided me. Was this respectful treatment to my father—to such a father, too—who had always regarded me as the pride of his age—the staff of his hopes? It is true, he was apt sometimes to laugh at my enthusiastic flights, and did not treat my philosophy with due respect; but when had he ever thwarted a wish of my heart? Was I then to act with reserve toward him, in a matter which might affect the whole current of my future life? “I have done wrong,” thought I; “but it is not too late to remedy it. I will hasten back and open my whole heart to my father!”
I returned accordingly, and was just on the point of entering the house, with my heart full of filial piety and a contrite speech upon my lips, when I heard a burst of obstreperous laughter from my father, and a loud titter from my two elder sisters.