Your father's disapproval is always a sufficient reason
to allege."
Ralph was annoyed at the receipt of these letters, though he only smiled
as he locked them up in his desk.
"Dear old father! how he blusters! As to my mother, she is reasonable
when I talk to her. Once give her a definite idea of what Ellinor's
fortune will be, and let her, if she chooses, cut down her timber--a
threat she has held over me ever since I knew what a rocking-horse was,
and which I have known to be illegal these ten years past--and she'll
come round. I know better than they do how Reginald has run up
post-obits, and as for that vulgar high-born Lady Maria they are all so
full of, why, she is a Flanders mare to my Ellinor, and has not a silver
penny to cross herself with, besides! I bide my time, you dear good
people!"
He did not think it necessary to reply to these letters immediately, nor
did he even allude to their contents in his to Ellinor. Mr. Wilkins, who
had been very well satisfied with his own letter to the young man, and
had thought that it must be equally agreeable to every one, was not at
all suspicious of any disapproval, because the fact of a distinct
sanction on the part of Mr. Ralph Corbet's friends to his engagement was
not communicated to him.
As for Ellinor, she trembled all over with happiness. Such a summer for
the blossoming of flowers and ripening of fruit had not been known for
years; it seemed to her as if bountiful loving Nature wanted to fill the
cup of Ellinor's joy to overflowing, and as if everything, animate and
inanimate, sympathised with her happiness.
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