Page:The Reverberator (2nd edition, American issue, London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1888).djvu/95

Rh was too amiable he brought out his revelation. He had seen the young lady more often than he had told her; he had particularly wished that she should see her. Now he wanted his father and Jane and Margaret to do the same, and above all he wanted them to like her, even as she, Susan, liked her. He was delighted that she had been captivated—he had been captivated himself. Mme. de Brécourt protested that she had reserved her independence of judgment, and he answered that if she had thought Miss Dosson repulsive she might have expressed it in another way. When she inquired what he was talking about and what he wanted them all to do with her, he said: "I want you to treat her kindly, tenderly, for such as you see her I am thinking of making her my wife."

"Mercy on us—you haven't asked her?" cried Mme. de Brécourt.

"No, but I have asked her sister what she would say, and she tells me there would be no difficulty."

"Her sister?—the little woman with the big head?"

"Her head is rather out of drawing, but it isn't a part of the affair. She is very inoffensive and she would be devoted to me."

"For heaven's sake then keep quiet. She is as common as a dressmaker's bill."

"Not when you know her. Besides, that has nothing to do with Francie. You couldn't find