I have shrunk instinctively alike from those to whom you have urged me to pay court, and from the motives of interest and gain which have rendered them in your eyes visible objects for my suit.

If there never has been thus much plain-speaking between us before, sir, the fault has not been mine, indeed.

If I seem to speak too plainly now, it is, believe me father, in the hope that there may be a franker spirit, a worthier reliance, and a kinder confidence between us in time to come.' 'My good fellow,' said his smiling father, 'you quite affect me.

Go on, my dear Edward, I beg.

But remember your promise.