( 370 )
tion, if I seize this hurried, yet perhaps only moment, to express my impatience for a communication of which I have thought, almost exclusively, from the moment I have had it in view? Must it be deferred? or—"
"No; it admits of no delay. I have much to say—and I am allowed but ten minutes—"
"You have much to say?" cried he, delighted; "ten minutes to-day may be followed by twenty, thirty, as many as you please, to-morrow,—and after to-morrow,—and whenever you command."
"You are very good, Sir, but my commission admits as little of extension as of procrastination. It must be as brief as it will be abrupt."
"Your commission?" he repeated, in a tone of disappointment.
"Yes; I am charged by . . . by . . . by a lady whom I need not name—to say that . . . that your brother—"
She stopt, ashamed to proceed.
