“I wish, sir, that you would see her before I answer the last question. I wish you to judge her on her own merits, independent of all other considerations.”
Harry had maintained the conversation with a good deal of spirit, though he felt somewhat exhausted, when his father, turning to the table, began to write without apparently noticing him. While thus seated, his eye fell on the picture of his long lost uncle which hung next to Sir Reginald’s. Though he had been often in the room, he had never particularly noticed it, for it was in a bad light, and the features were not distinct. A gleam of sunlight now coming into the room fell directly on it, and suddenly, as he gazed, a strange idea came into his mind. He thought, and thought. “Yes, the features and expression remind me much of what he was at the same age, and yet it must be fancy.”
Sir Ralph suddenly interrupted his reveries.
“Harry,” he said, “I do not wish to quarrel with your friend, that is not my way, but you will take an early opportunity of advising him to spend the remainder of his time on shore elsewhere.”
“But has Headland proposed to you for Julia?” asked Harry.
“No, and I wish to prevent him from doing so,” said Sir Ralph. “We shall part on much better terms than would be the case had I to refuse his offer, and I dislike such a scene as is likely to follow. If he goes away without being engaged she will soon forget him, and he, employed in active service, will forget her; the matter will thus be settled, and much inconvenience saved.”