I cannot imagine how you could have been so blind!" "But you _will_ help me, Miss Pimpernell, won't you ?" I entreated.
"Well, my boy, I will tell Minnie what you have just told me about your delusion, and say that you are very sorry for having treated her so badly." "And tell her," I interposed, "that she's dearer to me than ever." "I will do nothing of the sort," hastily replied the old lady.

"I am not going to give Miss Spight another chance of calling me `a wretched old match-maker,' as she did once! No, Master Frank, you must do all your love-making yourself, my boy.

I did not tell you that Minnie cares for you, you know; and, I can't say whether she does, or no.

She's only very unhappy at your considering her no longer in the light of a friend, and has said nothing to lead me to imagine anything more than that.

She would not have spoken to me at all about it, I'm confident, if she had not happened to have seen you only a moment before, and had her sensitive little heart wounded by your coldness! Why don't you tell her yourself, Frank, what you wish me to say for you ?" "So I would, Miss Pimpernell, at once," I replied, "if I only had an opportunity; but I never get a chance of seeing her alone." "Why don't you make one, Frank ?" said she.