Sir Charles has promised me never to
mention it, and no more shall Bella. And now, my dear John, let me
congratulate you. Your daughter has a high-minded lover, who adores
her, with a fine estate: he has been crying to me, poor fellow, as men
will to a woman of my age; and if you have any respect for my
judgment--ask him to dinner."
She added that it might be as well if, after dinner, he were to take a
little nap.
Admiral Bruce did not fall into these views without discussion. I spare
the reader the dialogue, since he yielded at last; only he stipulated
that his sister should do the dinner, and the subsequent siesta.
Bella returned looking very wistful and anxious.
"Come here, niece," said Mrs. Molineux. "Kneel you at my knee. Now
look--me in the face. Sir Charles has loved you, and you only, from the
day he first saw you. He loves you now as much as ever. Do you love
him?"
"Oh, aunt! aunt!" A shower of kisses, and a tear or two.
"That is enough. Then dry your eyes, and dress your beautiful hair a
little better than _that;_ for he dines with me to-day!"
Who so bright and happy now as Bella Bruce?
The dreaded aunt did not stop there. She held that after the peep into
real life Bella Bruce had obtained, for want of a mother's vigilance,
she ought to be a wife as soon as possible.
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