"And now shall I show you your room, Miss Dale?" said Lady Julia. And
so the party was broken up, and the ice had been broken.
CHAPTER LIII
Loquitur Hopkins
The squire had been told that his niece Bell had accepted Dr Crofts,
and he had signified a sort of acquiescence in the arrangement,
saying that if it were to be so, he had nothing to say against Dr
Crofts. He spoke this in a melancholy tone of voice, wearing on his
face that look of subdued sorrow which was now habitual to him. It
was to Mrs Dale that he spoke on the subject. "I could have wished
that it might have been otherwise," he said, "as you are well aware.
I had family reasons for wishing that it might be otherwise. But I
have nothing to say against it. Dr Crofts, as her husband, shall be
welcome to my house." Mrs Dale, who had expected much worse than
this, began to thank him for his kindness, and to say that she also
would have preferred to see her daughter married to her cousin. "But
in such a matter the decision should be left entirely to the girl.
Don't you think so?"
"I have not a word to say against her," he repeated.
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