cheek. And you a brazen statue! 'They do not love who do not
show their love.' But, in faith, you show yours to any one
who'll be at pains to watch you. Your eyes betray you as often
as ever you look at her. I had n't observed you for two
minutes by the clock, when I knew your secret as well as if you
'd chosen me for your confessor. But what's holding you back?
You can't expect her to do the proposing. Now curse me for a
meddlesome Irishwoman, if you will--but why don't you throw
yourself at her feet, and ask her, like a man?"

"How can I?" said Peter, abandoning any desire he may have felt
to beat about the bush. Nay, indeed, it is very possible he
welcomed, rather than resented, the Irishwoman's meddling.

"What's to prevent you?" said she.

"Everything," said he.

"Everything is nothing. That?"

"Dear lady! She is hideously rich, for one thing."

"Getaway with you!" was the dear lady's warm expostulation.
"What has money to do with the question, if a man's in love?
But that's the English of it--there you are with your
cold-blooded calculation. You chain up your natural impulses as
if they were dangerous beasts. Her money never saved you from
succumbing to her enchantments. Why should it bar you from
declaring your passion."