"Why not?" said Ruperta.
"How could it," said Mrs. Bassett, "with everybody against it but poor
little me!"
"Compton assures me that Lady Bassett wishes it."
"Indeed! But Sir Charles and papa, Ruperta?"
"Oh, Compton must talk Sir Charles over, and I will persuade papa. I'll
begin this evening, when he comes home from London."
Accordingly, as he was sitting alone in the dining-room sipping his
glass of port, Ruperta slipped away from her mother's side and found
him.
His face brightened at the sight of her; for he was extremely fond and
proud of this girl, for whom he would not have the bells rung when she
was born.
She came and hung round his neck a little, and kissed him, and said
softly, "Dear papa, I have something to tell you. I have had a
proposal."
Richard Bassett stared.
"What, of marriage?"
Ruperta nodded archly.
"To a child like you? Scandalous! No, for, after all, you look nineteen
or twenty. And who is the highwayman that thinks to rob me of my
precious girl?"
"Well, papa, whoever he is, he will have to wait three years, and so I
told him. It is my cousin Compton."
"What!" cried Richard Bassett, so loudly that the girl started back
dismayed. "That little monkey have the impudence to offer marriage to
my daughter? Surely, Ruperta, you have offered him no encouragement?"
"N--no.
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