Then your long delay here, and your frequent visits to our
house, opened the eyes of Mrs. Hardy and myself. To yourself,
personally, I can entertain no objection. Still, when I remember
that you are only twenty-six, and that for the last four years you
have seen no one with whom you could possibly fall in love, with
the exception of my daughter, I can hardly think that you have had
sufficient opportunity to know your own mind. When you return to
England you will meet young ladies very much prettier and very much
more accomplished than my Maud, and you may regret the haste which
led you to form an engagement out here."
"You shake your head, as is natural that you should do; but I
repeat, you cannot at present know your own mind. If this is true
of you, it is still more true of my daughter. She is very young,
and knows nothing whatever of the world. Next month she proceeds to
England with her mother, and for the next two years she will be
engaged upon finishing her education. At the end of that time I
shall myself return to England, and we shall then enter into
society. If at that time you are still of the same way of thinking,
and choose to renew our acquaintance, I shall be very happy, in the
event of Maud accepting you, to give my consent.
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