He himself treated his proposition very seriously.

"I have thought of it, and I should like to do it," he affirmed.
Charlotte, meanwhile, was staring with expanded eyes.

Her imagination, as I have said, was not so rapid as her sister's, but now it had taken several little jumps.

"Father," she murmured, "consent!" Mr.Brand heard her; he looked away.

Mr.Wentworth, evidently, had no imagination at all.