"I have a great idea
that if I could see that Harry Bish that Edward is always talking about, I
should be charmed. He must wear such beautiful waistcoats! Don't you think
I had better see him before our engagement is quite, quite final?"
But Frank would not smile. In fact, like all angry persons, he found fresh
matter for offence in every sentence. She did not consider the engagement
as quite final: thus he chose to understand her playful speech. He would
not answer. She spoke again:
"Dear Frank, you are not angry with me, are you? It is nonsense to think
that we are to go about the world, picking and choosing men and women as
if they were fruit and we were to gather the best; as if there was not
something in our own hearts which, if we listen to it conscientiously, will
tell us at once when we have met the one of all others. There now, am I
sensible? I suppose I am, for your grim features are relaxing into a smile.
That's right. But now listen to this. I think your father would come round
sooner, if he were not irritated every day by the knowledge of your visits
to me. If you went away, he would know that we should write to each other
yet he would forget the exact time when; but now he knows as well as I do
where you are when you are up here; and I fancy, from what Erminia says, it
makes him angry the whole time you are away."
Frank was silent. At last he said: "It is rather provoking to be obliged to
acknowledge that there is some truth in what you say.
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