When I entered the room, he did not rise in his usual
courteous way to greet me, but simply pointed to a chair opposite to
his own; this boded nothing agreeable. I sat down, however, silently
waiting until he should open the conversation.
"Lady Margaret," at length he said, in a tone of greater sternness
than I thought him capable of using, "I have hitherto spoken to you as
a friend, but I have not forgotten that I am also your guardian, and
that my authority as such gives me a right to controul your conduct.
I shall put a question to you, and I expect and will demand a
plain, direct answer. Have I rightly been informed that you have
contemptuously rejected the suit and hand of my son Edward?"
I stammered forth with a good deal of trepidation:--
"I believe, that is, I have, sir, rejected my cousin's proposals; and
my coldness and discouragement might have convinced him that I had
determined to do so."
"Madame," replied he, with suppressed, but, as it appeared to me,
intense anger, "I have lived long enough to know that _coldness and
discouragement_, and such terms, form the common cant of a worthless
coquette. You know to the full, as well as I, that _coldness and
discouragement_ may be so exhibited as to convince their object that
he is neither distasteful nor indifferent to the person who wears that
manner.
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