Don't you fret your heart out for so small a thing as a
father's opposition. You are sure to tire him out if he loves you, and if
he doesn't love you, or loves money better, why, then, he is not a worthy
rival to my cousin Walter, for that man really loves you, and would marry
you if you had not a penny. So would Percy Fitzroy marry me. And that is
why I prefer him to the grenadiers and plungers with silky mustaches, and
half an eye on me and an eye and a half on my money."
Many other things passed between these two, but what we have endeavored
to repeat was the cream of Julia's discourse, and both her advice and
her sympathy were for the time a wonderful comfort to the love-sick,
solitary girl.
But our business is with Walter Clifford. As soon as he was announced,
Mr. Bartley dismissed his rugged visitors, and received Walter affably,
though a little stiffly.
Walter opened his business at once, and told him he had come to ask his
permission to court his daughter. He said he had admired her from the
first moment, and now his happiness depended on her, and he felt sure he
could make her happy; not, of course, by his money, but by his devotion.
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