The uncle broke the silence.
"What am I to understand from this, young man ?" "Young man, sir!--I feel it very difficult to understand you, uncle! In respect to Edith and myself, sir, I have but to say that we have discovered that we are something more than cousins to each other!" "Indeed! And how long is it, I pray, since you have made this discovery ?" This was said with a dry tone, and hard, contemptuous manner.

The youth strove honestly to keep down his blood.
"Within the hour, sir! Not that we have not always felt that we loved each other, uncle; only, that, up to this time, we had never been conscious of the true nature of our feelings." The youth replied with the most provoking simplicity.

The uncle was annoyed.

He would rather that Ralph should have relieved him, by a conjecture of his own, from the necessity of hinting to him that such extreme sympathies, between the parties, were by no means a matter of course.

But the nephew would not, or could not, see; and his surprise, at the uncle's course, was perpetually looking for explanation.