May I tell him--"
"You may tell him that he may plead his own cause, my dear brother; and,
at all events, I will listen to no other until he has had fair play; but
recollect that at present I only _like_ him--like him _very much, _it is
true; but still I only _like_ him."
I was quite satisfied with my success, and so was O'Brien, when I told
him. "By the powers, Peter, she's an angel, and I can't expect her to
love an inferior being like myself; but if she'll only like me well
enough to marry me, I'll trust to after-marriage for the rest. Love
comes with the children, Peter. Well, but you need not say that to her--
divil a bit--they shall come upon her like old age, without her
perceiving it."
O'Brien having thus obtained permission, certainly lost no time in
taking advantage of it. Celeste and I were more fondly attached every
day. The solicitor declared my case so good, that he could raise fifty
thousand pounds upon it. In short, all our causes were prosperous, when
an event occurred, the details of which, of course, I did not obtain
until some time afterwards, but which I shall narrate here.
My uncle was very much alarmed when he discovered that I had been
released from Bedlam--still more so, when he had notice given him of a
suit, relative to the succession to the title. His emissaries had
discovered that the wet-nurse had been brought home in O'Brien's
frigate, and was kept so close that they could not communicate with her.
He now felt that all his schemes would prove abortive.
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