too, begged her to remain. "I can speak better to an
audience!" he declared.

"I hope it is nothing disagreeable," said Mr. Wentworth.

"It 's something delightful, for me!" And Felix, laying down his hat,
clasped his hands a little between his knees. "My dear uncle," he said,
"I desire, very earnestly, to marry your daughter Gertrude." Charlotte
sank slowly into her chair again, and Mr. Wentworth sat staring, with a
light in his face that might have been flashed back from an iceberg.
He stared and stared; he said nothing. Felix fell back, with his hands
still clasped. "Ah--you don't like it. I was afraid!" He blushed deeply,
and Charlotte noticed it--remarking to herself that it was the first
time she had ever seen him blush. She began to blush herself and to
reflect that he might be much in love.

"This is very abrupt," said Mr. Wentworth, at last.

"Have you never suspected it, dear uncle?" Felix inquired. "Well, that
proves how discreet I have been. Yes, I thought you would n't like it."

"It is very serious, Felix," said Mr. Wentworth.

"You think it 's an abuse of hospitality!" exclaimed Felix, smiling
again.

"Of hospitality?--an abuse?" his uncle repeated very slowly.

"That is what Felix said to me," said Charlotte, conscientiously.

"Of course you think so; don't defend yourself!" Felix pursued. "It
is an abuse, obviously; the most I can claim is that it is perhaps a
pardonable one. I simply fell head over heels in love; one can hardly
help that. Though you are Gertrude's progenitor I don't believe you
know how attractive she is. Dear uncle, she contains the elements of a
singularly--I may say a strangely--charming woman!"

"She has always been to me an object of extreme concern," said Mr.
Wentworth. "We have always desired her happiness."

"Well, here it is!" Felix declared. "I will make her happy. She believes
it, too. Now had n't you noticed that?"

"I had noticed that she was much changed," Mr. Wentworth declared, in
a tone whose unexpressive, unimpassioned quality appeared to Felix to
reveal a profundity of opposition. "It may be that she is only becoming
what you call a charming woman."

"Gertrude, at heart, is so earnest, so true," said Charlotte, very
softly, fastening her eyes upon her father.

"I delight to hear you praise her!" cried Felix.

"She has a very peculiar temperament," said Mr. Wentworth.

"Eh, even that is praise!" Felix rejoined. "I know I am not the man you
might ha