I answered that I agreed with him, unless the lady's affections had already caused her to form other ties.
"Affections!" he exclaimed, dropping all pretence, "there are none involved in this accursed business, as you are quite sharp enough to have seen for yourself." "I understood that an engagement was involved," I remarked.
"On my part, perhaps, not on hers," he answered.

"Oh! can't you understand, Quatermain, that sometimes men find themselves forced into strange situations against their will ?" Remembering the very ugly name that I had heard Rodd call Marnham on the night of the card party, I reflected that I could understand well enough, but I only said-- "After all marriage is a matter that concerns a woman even more than it does her father, one, in short, of which she must be the judge." "Quite so, Quatermain, but there are some daughters who are prepared to make great sacrifices for their fathers.

Well, she will be of age ere long, if only I can stave it off till then.
But how, how ?" and with a groan he turned and left me.
That old gentleman's neck is in some kind of a noose, thought I to myself, and his difficulty is to prevent the rope from being drawn tight.

Meanwhile this poor girl's happiness and future are at stake.
"Allan," said Anscombe to me a little later, for by now he called me by my Christian name, "I suppose you haven't heard anything about those oxen, have you ?" "No, I could scarcely expect to yet, but why do you ask ?" He smiled in his droll fashion and replied, "Because, interesting as this household is in sundry ways, I think it is about time that we, or at any rate that I, got out of it." "Your leg isn't fit to travel yet, Anscombe, although Rodd says that all the symptoms are very satisfactory." "Yes, but to tell you the truth I am experiencing other symptoms quite unknown to that beloved physician and so unfamiliar to myself that I attribute them to the influences of the locality.
Altitude affects the heart, does it not, and this house stands high." "Don't play off your jokes on me," I said sternly.

"What do you mean ?" "I wonder if you find Miss Heda attractive, Allan, or if you are too old.