e, my dear," said the amiable Mr. Ablewhite. He took
a chair. The rest of them looked at his face--as if they expected it,
after seventy years of worldly training, to speak the truth. I looked
at the top of his bald head; having noticed on other occasions that the
temper which was really in him had a habit of registering itself THERE.

"Some weeks ago," pursued the old gentleman, "my son informed me that
Miss Verinder had done him the honour to engage herself to marry him.
Is it possible, Rachel, that he can have misinterpreted--or presumed
upon--what you really said to him?"

"Certainly not," she replied. "I did engage myself to marry him."

"Very frankly answered!" said Mr. Ablewhite. "And most satisfactory, my
dear, so far. In respect to what happened some weeks since, Godfrey has
made no mistake. The error is evidently in what he told me yesterday.
I begin to see it now. You and he have had a lovers' quarrel--and my
foolish son has interpreted it seriously. Ah! I should have known better
than that at his age."

The fallen nature in Rachel--the mother Eve, so to speak--began to chafe
at this.

"Pray let us understand each other, Mr. Ablewhite," she said. "Nothing
in the least like a quarrel took place yesterday between your son and
me. If he told you that I proposed breaking off our marriage engagement,
and that he agreed on his side--he told you the truth."

The self-registering thermometer at the top of Mr. Ablewhite's bald
head began to indicate a rise of temper. His face was more amiable than
ever--but THERE was the pink at the top of his face, a shade deeper
already!

"Come, come, my dear!" he said, in his most soothing manner, "now don't
be angry, and don't be hard on poor Godfrey! He has evidently said some
unfortunate thing. He was always clumsy from a child--but he means well,
Rachel, he means well!"

"Mr. Ablewhite, I have either expressed myself very badly, or you are
purposely mistaking me. Once for all, it is a settled thing between your
son and myself that we remain, for the rest of our lives, cousins and
nothing more. Is that plain enough?"

The tone in which she said those words made it impossible, even for
old Mr. Ablewhite, to mistake her any longer. His thermometer went up
another degree, and his voice when he next spoke, ceased to be the voice
which is appropriate to a notoriously good-natured man.

"I am to understand, then," he said, "that your marriage engagement is
broken off?"