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. There was a dead
silence, much to her mortification, for she would have given a great
deal that her husband had interrupted her just then, and taken her upon
the wrong tack.

"Well," she proceeded, "do you all wish to hear it?"

Lindsay put his forefinger on his lips, and nodded to all the rest to do
the same.

"Ah, Lindsay," she exclaimed, "you are an ill-minded man; but it matters
not so far as you are concerned--in three words, Harry, the proposal is
accepted; yes, accepted, and with gratitude and thanksgiving."

"And you had no quarrel?" said Lindsay, with astonishment; "nor you
didn't let out on them? Well, well!"

"Children, I am addressing myself to you, and especially to Harry here,
who is most interested; no, I see nothing to prevent us from having back
the property and the curds-and-whey along with it."

"Faith, and the curds-and-whey are the best part of it after all," said
Lindsay; "but, in the meantime, you might be a little more particular,
and give us a touch of your own eloquence and ability in bringing it
about."

"What did Alice herself say, mother?" asked Charles; "was she a party to
the consent? because, if she was, your triumph, or rather Harry's here,
is complete."

"It is complete," replied his mother, having recourse to a dishonest
evasion; "the girl and her parents have but one opinion. Indeed, I
always did the poor thing the credit to believe that she never was
capable of entertaining an opinion of her own, and it now turns out a
very fortunate thing for Harry that it is so; but of course he has made
an impression upon her."

"As to that, mamma," said Maria, "I don't know--he may, or he may not;
but of this I am satisfied, that Alice Goodwin is a girl who can form
an opinion for herself, and that, whatever that opinion be, she will
neither change or abandon it upon slight grounds. I know her well, but
if she has cons