'
'What a vexatious boy you are! You don't really think so at all. You
only speak so because you like to tease me.'
'Well, you certainly do look pretty when you're defending the
castles in the air. Give me a kiss.'
'Indeed, I shall not. Tell me seriously what you mean. What does
Mrs. Waltham think about it?'
'Give me a kiss, and I'll tell you. If not, I'll go away and leave
you to find out everything as best you can.'
'Oh, Alfred, you're a sad tyrant!'
'Of course I am. But it's a benevolent despotism. Well, mother wants
Adela to accept him. In fact, she asked me if I didn't think you'd
help us. Of course I said you would.'
'Then you were very hasty. I'm not joking now, Alfred. I think of
Adela in a way you very likely can't understand. It would be
shocking, oh! shocking, to try and make her marry him if she doesn't
really wish to.'
'No fear! We shan't manage that.'
'And surely wouldn't wish to?'
'I don't know. Girls often can't see what's best for them. I say,
you understand that all this is in confidence?'
'Of course I do. But it's a confidence I had rather not have
received. I shall be miserable, I know that.'
'Then you're a little--goose.'
'You were going to call me something far worse.'
'Give me credit, then, for correcting myself.
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