“Oh, yes, Sir; mostly every day.”
“Do you ever go out with her?—just to take care of her when no one else can be spared?”
“Don’t ask me—please, Sir, don’t!” She crumpled her apron between her fingers, with a very piteous and perplexed air. “I don’t know you; and Miss Margaret don’t know you, I’m sure—I couldn’t, Sir, I really couldn’t!”
“Take a good look at me! Do you think I am likely to do you or your young lady any harm? Am I too dangerous a man to be trusted? Would you believe me on my promise?”
“Yes, Sir, I’m sure I would!—being so kind and so civil to me, too!” (a fresh arrangement of the cap followed this speech.)
“Then suppose I promised, in the first place, not to tell Miss Margaret that I had spoken to you about her at all. And suppose I promised, in the second place, that, if you told me when you and Miss Margaret go out together, I would only speak to her while she was in your sight, and would leave her the moment you wished me to go away. Don’t you think you could venture to help me, if I promised all that?”
“Well, Sir, that would make a difference, to be sure. But then, it’s master I’m so afraid of—couldn’t you speak to master first, Sir?”
“Suppose you were in Miss Margaret’s place, would you like to be made love to, by your father’s authority, without your own wishes being consulted first? would you like an offer of marriage, delivered like a message, by means of your father? Come, tell me honestly, would you?”
She laughed, and shook her head very expressively. I knew the strength of my last argument, and repeated it: “Suppose you were in Miss Margaret’s place?”
“Hush! don’t speak so loud,” resumed the girl in a confidential whisper. “I’m sure you’re a gentleman. I should like to help you—if I could only dare to do it, I should indeed!”