unk instinctively
alike from those to whom you have urged me to pay court, and from the
motives of interest and gain which have rendered them in your eyes
visible objects for my suit. If there never has been thus much
plain-speaking between us before, sir, the fault has not been mine,
indeed. If I seem to speak too plainly now, it is, believe me father, in
the hope that there may be a franker spirit, a worthier reliance, and a
kinder confidence between us in time to come.'

'My good fellow,' said his smiling father, 'you quite affect me. Go
on, my dear Edward, I beg. But remember your promise. There is great
earnestness, vast candour, a manifest sincerity in all you say, but I
fear I observe the faintest indications of a tendency to prose.'

'I am very sorry, sir.'

'I am very sorry, too, Ned, but you know that I cannot fix my mind for
any long period upon one subject. If you'll come to the point at once,
I'll imagine all that ought to go before, and conclude it said. Oblige
me with the milk again. Listening, invariably makes me feverish.'

'What I would say then, tends to this,' said Edward. 'I cannot bear
this absolute dependence, sir, even upon you. Time has been lost and
opportunity thrown away, but I am yet a young man, and may retrieve it.
Will you give me the means of devoting such abilities and energies as I
possess, to some worthy pursuit? Will you let me try to make for myself
an honourable path in life? For any term you please to name--say for
five years if you will--I will pledge myself to move no further in the
matter of our difference without your fall concurrence. During that
period, I will endeavour earnestly and patiently, if ever man did, to
open some prospect for myself, and free you from the burden you fear
I should become if I married one whose worth and beauty are her chief
endowments. Will you do this, sir? At the expiration of the term we
agree upon, let us discuss this subject again. Till then, unless it is
revived by you, let it never be renewed between us.'

'My dear Ned,' returned his father, laying down the newspaper at which
he had been glancing carelessly, and throwing himself back in the
window-seat, 'I believe you know how very much I dislike what are called
family affairs, which are only fit for plebeian Christmas days, and
have no manner of business with people of our condition. But as you
are proceeding upon a mistake, Ned--altogether upon a mistake--I will
conquer my repugnance