"I must say that this is a very good letter, very respectful and
lady-like," said the captain honestly, though he felt as if he had
been expected to condemn it, and proceeded to read it through again,
this time aloud:--
MY DEAR AUNT,--I cannot think it is right that we do not know
each other. I should like to go to Dunport for a day some time
next month; but if you do not wish to see me you have only to
tell me so, and I will not trouble you.
Yours sincerely,
ANNA PRINCE.
"A very good handwriting, too," the captain remarked, and then
gathered courage to say that he supposed Miss Prince would give her
niece the permission for which she asked. "I have been told that she
is a very fine girl," he ventured, as if he were poor Nan's
ambassador; and at this Miss Prince's patience gave way.
"Yes, I shall ask her to come, but I do not wish anything said about
it; it need not be made the talk of the town." She answered her cousin
angrily, and then felt as if she had been unjust. "Do not mind me,
Walter," she said; "it has been a terrible grief and trouble to me all
these years. Perhaps if I had gone to see those people, and told them
all I felt, they would have pitied me, and not blamed me, and so
everything would have been better, but it is too late now. I don't
know what sort of a person my own niece is, and I wish that I need
never find out, but I shall try to do my duty.
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