'
'I am so glad.'
'But still all this is a sorrow to me. When however he put that
question to me about the world around her,--as to those among whom
her lot would be cast, I could not say I thought she would be
rejected.'
'Oh no!' The idea of rejecting Isabel.
'She has a brightness and a grace all her own,' continued the
Duke, 'which will ensure her acceptance in all societies.'
'Yes, yes;--it is just that, sir.'
'You will be a nine days' wonder,--the foolish thing young nobleman
who chose to marry an American.'
'I think it will be just other way up, sir--among the men.'
'But her place will I think be secure to her. That is what I told
Mr Boncassen.'
'It is all right with him, then,--now?'
'If you call it all right. You will understand of course that you
are acting in opposition to my advice,--and my wishes.'
'What am I to say, sir?' exclaimed Silverbridge, almost in
despair. 'When I love the girl better than my life, and when you
tell me that she can be mine if I choose to take her; when I have
asked her to be my wife, and have got her to say that she likes
me, when her father has given way, and all the rest of it, would
it be possible that I should say now that I will give her up?'
'My opinion is to go for nothing,--in anything?' The Duke as he
said this knew that he was expressing aloud a feeling which should
have been restrained within his own bosom.
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