“I know the world better than you do, Harry, and such a marriage as you wish me to sanction for your sister is not calculated to promote her welfare, and that is the point I, as her father, have to consider.”
“If she is not allowed to marry Headland she will be miserable,” exclaimed Harry.
“I had considered the point maturely before I sent for you,” said Sir Ralph, “and I wish to save your friend the annoyance of being spoken to by me. If you refuse to tell him my determination, I shall have to do so. And now, Harry, I have another matter to speak to you about.”
Harry grew nervous.
“I understand during my absence you have paid frequent visits to Downside.”
“Yes, sir,” said Harry, “Our cousins kindly invited me there.”
“I know they did, and placed a young lady, I hear, of some personal attractions in your way, and, like a sailor, you directly tumbled over head and ears in love with her. I strip the matter of the romance with which you may be inclined to surround it. Do I not speak the truth?”
“I confess, sir,” said Harry, determined to speak boldly, “I have met at the Miss Pembertons a young lady to whom I have declared my love.”
“You have declared your fiddlestick,” exclaimed the baronet, with less than his usual dignity. “You could make no promise without my sanction, and that I cannot give you. You can let the girl know this in any way you like.”
“My affections were engaged before I was aware of it, and as I am of age, and the young lady is in every way calculated to insure my happiness, and I have the means of supporting her without taxing you, I felt that I had a right to propose to her.”