,
is it not?«
    »I should say it was,« replied Dick; »unless the way in which I put the case
to him, made an impression. It may have done so. It was powerful, Fred. Here is
a jolly old grandfather - that was strong, I thought - very friendly and
natural. Did it strike you in that way?«
    »It didn't strike him,« returned the other, »so we needn't discuss it. Now
look here. Nell is nearly fourteen.«
    »Fine girl of her age, but small,« observed Richard Swiveller
parenthetically.
    »If I am to go on, be quiet for one minute,« returned Trent, fretting at the
very slight interest the other appeared to take in the conversation. »Now I'm
coming to the point.«
    »That's right,« said Dick.
    »The girl has strong affections, and brought up as she has been, may, at her
age, be easily influenced and persuaded. If I take her in hand, I will be bound
by a very little coaxing and threatening to bend her to my will. Not to beat
about the bush (for the advantages of the scheme would take a week to tell),
what's to prevent your marrying her?«
    Richard Swiveller, who had been looking over the rim of the tumbler while
his companion addressed the foregoing remarks to him with great energy and
earnestness of manner, no sooner heard these words than he evinced the utmost
consternation, and with difficulty ejaculated the monosyllable,
    »What!«
    »I say, what's to prevent,« repeated the other, with a steadiness of manner,
of the effect of which upon his companion he was well assured by long
experience, »what's to prevent your marrying her?«
    »And she nearly fourteen!« cried Dick.
    »I don't mean marrying her now« - returned the brother angrily; »say in two
years' time, in three, in four. Does the old man look like a long-liver?«
    »He don't look like it,« said Dick, shaking his head, »but these old people
- there's no trusting 'em, Fred. There's an aunt of mine down in Dorsetshire
that was going to die when I was eight years old, and hasn't kept her word yet.
They're so aggravating, so unprincipled, so spiteful - unless there's apoplexy
in the family, Fred, you
