Lecount, Miss Garth is a woman of business."
"Don't appeal to me, sir," cried Mrs. Lecount, gracefully wringing
her plump white hands. "I can't bear it! I must interfere! Let me
suggest--oh, what do you call it in English?--a compromise. Dear Mr.
Noel, you are perversely refusing to do yourself justice; you have
better reasons than the reason you have given to Miss Garth. You follow
your honored father's example; you feel it due to his memory to act in
this matter as he acted before you. That is his reason, Miss Garth---- I
implore you on my knees to take that as his reason. He will do what his
dear father did; no more, no less. His dear father made a proposal, and
he himself will now make that proposal over again. Yes, Mr. Noel, you
will remember what this poor girl says in her letter to you. Her sister
has been obliged to go out as a governess; and she herself, in losing
her fortune, has lost the hope of her marriage for years and years to
come. You will remember this--and you will give the hundred pounds to
one, and the hundred pounds to the other, which your admirable father
offered in the past time? If he does this, Miss Garth, will he
do enough? If he gives a hundred pounds each to these unfortunate
sisters--?"
"He will repent the insult to the last hour of his life," said Magdalen.
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