“Come now;—­be honest; is our Mr. Barry a gentleman?” Then there was a pause, during which she waited for a reply.  “I will have an answer.  I have a right to demand an answer to that question, since you have proposed the man to me as a husband.”

“Nay, I have not proposed him.”

“You have expressed a regret that I have not accepted him.  Is he a gentleman?”

“Well;—­yes; I think he is.”

“Mind; we are sworn, and you are bound to speak the truth.  What right has he to be a gentleman?  Who was his father and who was his mother?  Of what kind were his nursery belongings?  He has become an attorney, and so have you.  But has there been any one to whisper to him among his teachings that in that profession, as in all others, there should be a sense of high honor to guide him?  He must not cheat, or do anything to cause him to be struck off the rolls; but is it not with him what his client wants, and not what honor demands?  And in the daily intercourse of life would he satisfy what you call my fastidiousness?”

“Nothing on earth will ever do that.”

“You do.  I agree with you that nothing else on earth ever will.  The man who might, won’t come.  Not that I can imagine such a man, because I know that I am spoiled.  Of course there are gentlemen, though not a great many.  But he mustn’t be ugly and he mustn’t be good-looking.  He mustn’t seem to be old, and certainly he mustn’t seem to be young.  I should not like a man to wear old clothes, but he mustn’t wear new.  He must be well read, but never show it.  He must work hard, but he must come home to dinner at the proper time.”  Here she laughed, and gently shook her head.  “He must never talk about his business at night.  Though, dear, darling old father, he shall do that if he will talk like you.  And then, which is the hardest thing of all, I must have known him intimately for at any rate, ten years.  As for Mr. Barry, I never should know him intimately, though I were married to him for ten years.”

“And it has all been my doing?”

“Just so.  You have made the bed and you must lie on it.  It hasn’t been a bad bed.”

“Not for me.  Heaven knows it has not been bad for me.”

“Nor for me, as things go; only that there will come an arousing before we shall be ready to get up together.  Your time will probably be the first.  I can better afford to lose you than you to lose me.”

“God send that it shall be so!”

“It is nature,” she said.  “It is to be expected, and will on that account be the less grievous because it has been expected.  I shall have to devote myself to those Carroll children.  I sometimes think that the work of the world should not be made pleasant to us.  What profit will it be to me to have done my duty by you?  I think there will be some profit if I am good to my cousins.”

“At any rate, you won’t have Mr. Barry?” said the father.

“Not if I know it,” said the daughter; “and you, I think, are a wicked old man to suggest it.”  Then she bade him good-night and went to bed, for they had been talking now till near twelve.