“Gently, Magdalen! I’m a little too old for those long arms of yours to throttle me in fun.—You’re right, my love. Nothing in this world without a drawback. Frank will miss his friends in England: there’s no denying that.”
“You always liked Frank. And Frank always liked you.”
“Yes, yes—a good fellow; a quiet, good fellow. Frank and I have always got on smoothly together.”
“You have got on like father and son, haven’t you?”
“Certainly, my dear.”
“Perhaps you will think it harder on him when he has gone than you think it now?”
“Likely enough, Magdalen; I don’t say no.”
“Perhaps you will wish he had stopped in England? Why shouldn’t he stop in England, and do as well as if he went to China?”
“My dear! he has no prospects in England. I wish he had, for his own sake. I wish the lad well, with all my heart.”
“May I wish him well too, papa—with all my heart?”