"
"Please except your elder brother," said Harry, laughing, "whose
interest you know, Charley, is most concerned."
"Well, perhaps so," said Charles; "of course, Harry--but proceed,
mother, we shan't interrupt you."
"O, go on," said his mother, "go on; discuss the matter among you, I can
wait; don't hesitate to interrupt me; your father there has set you that
gentlemanly example."
"It must surely be good when it comes," said Harry,with a smile; "but do
proceed, my dear mother, and never mind these queer folk; go on at once,
and let us know all: we--that is, myself--are prepared for the worst; do
proceed, mother."
"Am I at liberty to speak?" said she, and she looked at them with a
glance that expressed a very fierce interrogatory. They all nodded, and
she resumed:
"Well, I have seen these people, I say; I have made a proposal of
marriage between Harry and Alice, and that proposal is--"
She paused, and looked around her with an air of triumph; but whether
that look communicated the triumph of success, or that of her inveterate
enmity and contempt for them ever since the death of old Hamilton,
was as great a secret to them as the Bononian enigma.
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