“Yes, it has been a very long time since you were here,” Mrs. Sewell added.
“I haven't had a great deal of time to myself,” said Lemuel, and he contrived to get himself out of the room.
Sewell followed him down to the door, in the endeavour to say something more on the subject his wife had interrupted, but he only contrived to utter some feeble repetitions. He came back in vexation, which he visited upon Lemuel. “Silly fellow!” he exclaimed.
“What has he been doing now?” asked Mrs. Sewell, with reproachful discouragement.
“Oh, I don't know! I suspect that he's been involving himself in some ridiculous love affair!” Mrs. Sewell looked a silent inculpation. “It's largely conjecture on my part, of course,—he's about as confiding as an oyster!—but I fancy I have said some things in a conditional way that will give him pause. I suspect from his manner that he has entangled himself with some other young simpleton, and that he's ashamed of it, or tired of it, already. If that's the case, I have hit the nail on the head. I told him that a foolish, rash engagement was better broken than kept. The foolish marriages that people rush into are the greatest bane of life!”
“And would you really have advised him, David,” asked his wife, “to break off an engagement if he had made one?”
“Of course I should! I——”
“Then I am glad I came in in time to prevent your doing anything so wicked.”
“Wicked?” Sewell turned from his desk, where he was about to sit down, in astonishment.
“Yes! Do you think that nobody else is to be considered in such a thing? What about the poor, silly girl if he breaks off with her? Oh, you men are all alike! Even the best! You think it is a dreadful thing for a young man to be burdened with a foolish love affair at the beginning of his career; but you never think of the girl whose whole career is spoiled, perhaps, if the affair is broken off! Hasn't she any right to be considered?”