“In other words, you were entrapped before you saw the meshes spread to catch you, and discarding every other consideration, are ready to disobey me, and give up your profession, and all your prospects of advancement in life, for the sake of a pretty face,” observed the baronet, sarcastically. “Though you are ready to make a fool of yourself, I must exert my paternal authority and save you from ruin.”
“But I do not contemplate giving up my profession, and the prize money I have already made, with what I may hope to obtain, will give me ample means to support a wife,” answered Harry.
“Have you calculated, may I ask, to what this princely fortune you speak of amounts?”
“Three or four hundred a year, sir, not including my pay; and the young lady herself is not penniless, for our cousins have resolved to leave her their property.”
“Our cousins leave a stranger their property!” exclaimed Sir Ralph. “It should be Julia’s or yours; it came through the Castletons, and should return to them.”
“So it will, sir,” said Harry, having, as he hoped, caught his father in a trap, “when May marries me.”
“I see how it is,” observed the baronet, not noticing Harry’s last remark. “Our sanctimonious cousins wish to get a husband for this girl they have picked up, and as they are not likely to meet any other young gentleman in the secluded way they live, they have entrapped you.”
“I assure you, sir, you do them great wrong,” observed Harry, warmly. “I went to the house of my own accord, and I am sure it did not enter their heads that I should fall in love with their friend. I wish, sir, that you could see them and the lady you condemn. Possessing as you do so exquisite a taste in female beauty and refinement, I am sure you will admire her.”
“I may possibly call at the Miss Pembertons, because I wish to express my opinion of their conduct in the matter,” said the baronet, wishing not to appear influenced by his son’s remarks. “I may then see this girl who has caught you. I tell you that if she were as beautiful as Venus, nothing would alter my determination. May I ask, do you know who she is? Your mother has only spoken to me of her as the Miss Pembertons protégé.”
Harry, feeling perfectly sure that should he answer the question his father would be still more adverse to his marriage, and would possibly express himself forcibly on the subject, replied—