'
'It was so kind of you.'
'Do not repeat it. It is a kind of thing that ladies are
particular about. They choose their own time of letting everybody
know.' Then Dolly promised to be as mute as a fish, and took his
departure.
Silverbridge had felt, towards the interview, that he had been
arrogant to the unfortunate man,--particular in saying that the
young lady would not remember the existence of such a suitor,--and
had also recognised a certain honesty in the man's purpose, which
had not been less honest because it was so absurd. Actuated by the
consciousness of this, he had swallowed his anger, and had told
the whole truth. Nevertheless things had been said which were
horrible to him. This buffoon of a man had called his Isabel a-
pert poppet! How was he to get over the remembrance of such an
offence? And then the wretch had declared that he was--enamoured!
There was sacrilege in the term when applied by such a man to
Isabel Boncassen. He had thought of days to come, when everything
would be settled, when he might sit close to her, and call her
pretty names,--when he might in sweet familiarity tell that she was
a little Yankee and a fierce republican, and 'chaff' her about the
stars and stripes; and then, as he pictured the scene to himself
in his imagination, she would lean upon him and would give him
back his chaff, and would call him an aristocrat and would laugh
at his titles.
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