"For a single man the house is, of course, too large; but I do not
intend to remain always single, and--and now, Mr. Brookes, as we are
on the subject, I had better tell you that I have asked Miss Brookes
to be my wife."

Mr. Brookes grasped at the first words. "I am sure I am very pleased
to hear it, Mr. Berkins, and I hope the answer was a favourable one."

"Miss Brookes is a modest girl. She has been well brought up, as a
girl who is, I hope, to be my wife should be, and she was naturally a
little overcome. I did not exactly catch what she said, and I didn't
like to press her for an immediate answer. But suppose we assume for
the moment that Miss Brookes's reply will be a favourable one--I have,
I confess, much faith in her good sense--we might consider the
business side."

Notwithstanding his admiration of a man who had made three thousand a
year more than he had succeeded in doing, Mr. Brookes could not but
feel irritated at Berkins, who, with increasing gravity, continued to
assume all things to his own advantage. It had not occurred to him to
consider that Grace might refuse him. Why should she refuse him? She
could not hope to do better. She appeared to him as a very nice girl
indeed, one entirely fitted for the position for which he intended
her. He understood that all girls, at least those in society, were
innocent and virtuous; he understood that when they married they made
faithful and dutiful wives; and he had chosen her not because he had
fallen in love, nor yet because he had noticed she was likely to make
a better wife than her sisters, but because she was the eldest. Even
so he would be twenty years his wife's senior, and he had chosen to
marry one of the Brookes girls because he knew them and saw them