ultimate acquiescence, upon the force of his own unbending character, her isolated position, without any one to encourage or abet her in what he looked upon as her disobedience, consequently his complete control over her; having summoned up all those points together, he resolved to beat about a little longer, but, at all events, to keep the peer in the dark, and, if pressed, to hazard the falsehood.  He replied, however, to his lordship’s last observation: 

“I assure you, my lord, I thought not of my daughter while I drew the picture.”

“Well, then,” replied his lordship, smiling, “all I have to say is, that you are very eloquent in generalities—­generalities, too, my friend, that do not bear upon the question.  In one word, is Miss Gourlay inclined to this marriage? and I beseech you, my dear baronet, no more of these generalities.”

“She is as much so, my lord,” replied the other, “as nineteen women out of every twenty are in general.  But it is not to be expected, I repeat, that a delicately-minded and modest young creature will at once step forward unabashed and exclaim, ‘Yes, papa, I will marry him.’  I protest, my lord, it would require the desperate heroism of an old maid on the last legs of hope, or the hardihood of a widow of three husbands, to go through such an ordeal.  We consequently must make allowance for those delicate and blushing evasions which, after all, only mask compliance.”

By this reply the baronet hoped to be able to satisfy his friend, without plunging into the open falsehood.  The old nobleman, however, looked keenly at him, and asked a question which penetrated like a dagger into the lying soul within him.

“She consents, then, in the ordinary way?”

“She does, my lord.”

“Well,” replied the peer, “that, as the world goes, is, perhaps, as much as can be expected at present.  You have not, I dare say, attempted to force her very much on the subject, and the poor girl has no mother.  Under such circumstances, the delicacy of a young lady is certainly entitled to a manly forbearance.  Have you alluded to Dunroe’s want of morals?”

“Your opinion of his lordship and mine differ on this point considerably, my lord,” replied the baronet—­“You judge him with the severity of a father, I with the moderation of a friend.  I have certainly made no allusion to his morals.”

“Of course, then, you are aware, that it is your duty to do so; as a father, that it is a most solemn and indispensable duty?”

The soul of Sir Thomas Gourlay writhed within him like a wounded serpent, at the calm but noble truth contained in this apophthegm.  He was not, however, to be caught; the subtlety of his invention enabled him to escape on that occasion at least.