“We have no secrets from our dear May,” answered Miss Jane.
“That may be,” said the baronet, “but I wish to address myself to you alone.”
May rose as he spoke, and left the room.
“I have no doubt you have ample reasons for the regard you entertain for that young person,” he began in his most bland tone. “She may be very estimable, and her beauty is, I own, of a high order.”
“It is the least of her excellences, Sir Ralph,” observed Miss Jane, resolved to meet the baronet in his own style.
“That may be,” he answered, with a bow; “it is the quality, however, which has probably attracted my son Harry. You must be aware, my good cousins, however much he may fancy himself in love, I naturally object to his marrying a person of unknown birth and destitute of fortune. I objected when he was my second son, and since he has become my heir, I am doubly opposed to the match, as I wish him to marry a lady of rank and fortune who will contribute to his advancement in life. I am thus candid, that you may understand my motive for the offer I have come to make.”
“We are happy to listen to anything you may have to say, Sir Ralph,” answered Miss Jane, bowing, “though I cannot promise that we shall be ready to accept your offer.”
“You will at all events hear it before you decide, my good cousin. Not to keep you longer in suspense, I will at once place you in possession of my intentions. You have, I understand, lost a considerable amount of your property, which, if I am rightly informed, you had left by will to the young person of whom we have been speaking. Now, I am willing to make up your loss to you so that you may leave her as well provided for as you intended, on condition that she signs an agreement not to marry Harry, and to refuse ever again to see him. He is somewhat of a headstrong character, and it is the only security I can have that he will not on his return to England induce her to become his wife.”
“Is that the offer you have to make?” asked Miss Jane, in a tone of mingled surprise and anger. “I speak for myself and my sister. We certainly cannot accept it, and I am very certain that nothing would induce our dear May to sign such an agreement. She has already refused to marry Harry should you and Lady Castleton withhold your consent. She did so, confident of Harry’s love—in the belief that you would in time relent. But you might as well plunge a dagger in her breast as ask her to abandon the hope which now supports her of some day becoming his wife. I beg, therefore, that you will not expect us to make so cruel a proposal.”
“Very well, my good cousins. I must take other means of preventing Harry from marrying the girl, and you will lose the advantage I have offered,” answered the baronet.