Harry, boldly.

"Mr. Annesley, you should have come to me before speaking to my
daughter."

"Then I shouldn't have seen her at all."

"You should have left that as it might be. It is not at all a proper
thing that a young gentleman should come and address a young lady in
this way behind her only parent's back."

"I asked for you, and I did not know that you would not be at home."

"You should have gone away at once--at once. You know how terribly the
family is cut up by this great misfortune to our cousin Mountjoy.
Mountjoy Scarborough has been long engaged to Florence."

"No, mamma; no, never."

"At any rate, Mr. Annesley knows all about it. And that knowledge ought
to have kept him away at the present moment. I must beg him to leave us
now."

Then Harry took his hat and departed; but he had great consolation in
feeling that Florence had not repudiated his love, which she certainly
would have done had she not loved him in return. She had spoken no word
of absolute encouragement, but there had much more of encouragement than
of repudiation in her manner.