man rising thirty, with a private income, should not marry the nicest girl in London?
"But, then," said Mother, "dearest Adela is a girl in a thousand."
"And please don't forget," said Father the Proconsul, "you are my successor."
If only he could Abdicate! murmured the wretched Green Chartreuse.
Neither Father nor Mother heard it, fortunately.
And then in tones of solemn music, the silver-tongued timepiece chimed the hour of half-past four.
"By Jove," said the heir to the barony, with a sigh of relief. "How awfully late!" And rising to his full height from Messrs. Maple's choice upholstery, he dispensed a cloud of sweet and gentle and perfectly sincere apology.
He did not desire to bring a moment of pain to his excellent parents. He was sure it would be all for the best if only he could persuade her to have him—he had not persuaded her yet, worse luck! But, in spite of this charming urbanity, Mother took no leave of him; and Father had "a damned disinheriting countenance," as he escaped through the door of the library.
A pretty mess you have made of things, you fool, snarled the Twin Brethren, as Joseph showed him over the door-mat and whistled up a taxi.
