I am about to say is important enough to make it worth the while."

Though Mr. Allen flushed angrily, he knew that his clerk would not
employ such a tone and manner without reason, so he raised his head
and looked steadily at his unwelcome visitor and again said briefly:

"Well, sir?"

"I wish, in the first place," said Mr. Fox, thinking to begin with the
least important exaction, and gradually reach, a climax in his
extortion, "I wish permission to pay my addresses to your daughter
Miss Edith."

Knowing nothing of a father's pride and affection, he had unwittingly
brought in the climax first.

The angry flush deepened on Mr. Allen's face, but he still managed to
control himself, and to remember that the father of three pretty
daughters must expect some scenes like these, and that the only thing
to do was to get rid of the objectionable suitors as civilly as
possible. He was also too much of an American to put on any of the
high-stepping airs of the European aristocracy. Here it is simply one
sovereign proposing for the daughter of another, and generally the
young people practically arrange it all before asking any consent in
the case. After all, Mr. Fox had only paid his daughter the highest
compliment in his power, and if any other of his clerks had made a
similar request he would probably have given as kind and delicate a
refusal as possible. It was because he disliked Mr. Fox, and
instinctively gauged his character, that he said with a short, dry
laugh: