"Osborne! Do you know anything about this--this attachment of
Roger's?"
Quite successful. Osborne laid down his book in a moment, and turned
round to his father.
"Roger! an attachment! No! I never heard of it--I can hardly believe
it--that is to say, I suppose it is to--"
And then he stopped; for he thought he had no right to betray his own
conjecture that the object was Cynthia Kirkpatrick.
"Yes. He is though. Can you guess who to? Nobody that I particularly
like--not a connection to my mind--yet she's a very pretty girl; and
I suppose I was to blame in the first instance."
"Is it--?"
"It's no use beating about the bush. I've gone so far, I may as well
tell you all. It's Miss Kirkpatrick, Gibson's stepdaughter. But it's
not an engagement, mind you--"
"I'm very glad--I hope she likes Roger back again--"
"Like--it's only too good a connection for her not to like it: if
Roger is of the same mind when he comes home, I'll be bound she'll be
only too happy!"
"I wonder Roger never told me," said Osborne, a little hurt, now he
began to consider himself.
"He never told me either," said the Squire. "It was Gibson, who came
here, and made a clean breast of it, like a man of honour. I'd been
saying to him, I couldn't have either of you two lads taking up with
his lasses. I'll own it was you I was afraid of--it's bad enough with
Roger, and maybe will come to nothing after all; but if it had been
you, I'd ha' broken with Gibson and every mother's son of 'em, sooner
than have let it go on; and so I told Gibson."
"I beg your pardon for interrupting you, but, once for all, I claim
the right of choosing my wife for myself, subject to no man's
interference," said Osborne, hotly.
"Then you'll keep your wife with no man's interference, that's all;
for ne'er a penny will you get from me, my lad, unless you marry to
please me a little, as well as yourself a great deal. That's all I
ask of you. I'm not particular as to beauty, or as to cleverness, and
piano-playing, and that sort of thing; if Roger marries this girl, we
shall have enough of that in the family. I shouldn't much mind her
being a bit older than you, but she must be well-born, and the more
money she brings the better for the old place."
"I say again, father, I choose my wife for myself, and I don't admit
any man's right of dictation."
"Well, well!" said the Squire, getting a little angry in his turn.
"If I'm not to be father in this matter, thou sha'n't be son. Go
against me in what I've set my heart on, and you'll find there's the
devil to pay, that's all. But don't let us get angry, it's Sunday
afternoon for one thing, and it's a sin; and besides that, I've not
finished my story."