Page:The principal girl (IA principalgirl00snai).pdf/132

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"It isn't exactly definite. She seems to think there are things against it, but I'm going to talk it over this afternoon with her old grandmother."

"Who, pray, is her grandmother?"

"Her name is Mrs. Cathcart, and she lives at 10 Bedford Gardens."

"I will call upon her," said Mother, somewhat ostentatiously, making a note of the address.

"Philip," said the great Proconsul, "you must listen to me. I am afraid this is all very irregular. A man of your age, my dear boy, ought to know that in these days they give swingeing damages for breach. This must go no further, you understand; and the best thing we can hope for is, that the young woman's grandmother is as sensible as we have a right to expect an old woman and a grandmother to be."

"But I am goin' to marry Mary if she'll have me, father," said Mr. Philip, all politeness and simplicity.

Fortiter in Re, as classical scholars do not require to be told, is the natural corollary of Suaviter in Modo. Spasmodic trumpetings were emitted freely by the great Proconsul. The Colthurst of Suffolk also had recourse to the clarion note. It was really a scene of great majesty and power, and it lasted until hard upon tea-time. The behavior of the heir was subversive of all there was left to subvert in the Cosmos, since the wicked Welsh Chancellor's deadly missiles had knocked