Hester, though with a little surprise, also a little undefined anxiety,
at once consented, but ran first to her mother.
"What can he want to talk to me about, mamma?" she concluded.
"How can I tell, my dear?" answered her mother with a smile. "Perhaps
he will dare the daughter's refusal too."
"Oh, mamma! how can you joke about such a thing!"
"I am not quite joking, my child. There is no knowing what altogether
unsuitable things men will do!--Who can blame them when they see how
women consent to many unsuitable things!"
"But, mamma, he is old enough to be my father!"
"Of course he is! Poor man! it would be a hard fate to have fallen in
love with both mother and daughter in vain!"
"I won't go with him, mamma!"
"You had better go, my dear. You need not be much afraid. He is really a
gentleman, however easily mistaken for something else. You must not
forget how much we owe him for Mark!"
"Do you mean, mamma," said Hester, with a strange look out of her eyes,
"that I ought to marry him if he asks me?" Hester was sometimes oddly
stupid for a moment as to the intent of those she knew best.
Her mother laughed heartily.
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