. Brand. »In one sense there
is no change. There was something I desired - something I asked of you; I desire
something still - I ask it of you.« And he paused a moment; Mr. Wentworth looked
bewildered. »I should like, in my ministerial capacity, to unite this young
couple.«
    Gertrude, watching her sister, saw Charlotte flushing intensely, and Mr.
Wentworth felt her pressing upon his arm. »Heavenly Powers!« murmured Mr.
Wentworth. And it was the nearest approach to profanity he had ever made.
    »That is very nice; that is very handsome!« Felix exclaimed.
    »I don't understand,« said Mr. Wentworth; though it was plain that every one
else did.
    »That is very beautiful, Mr. Brand,« said Gertrude, emulating Felix.
    »I should like to marry you. It will give me great pleasure.«
    »As Gertrude says, it's a beautiful idea,« said Felix.
    Felix was smiling, but Mr. Brand was not even trying to. He himself treated
his proposition very seriously. »I have thought of it, and I should like to do
it,« he affirmed.
    Charlotte, meanwhile, was staring with expanded eyes. Her imagination, as I
have said, was not so rapid as her sister's, but now it had taken several little
jumps. »Father,« she murmured, »consent!«
    Mr. Brand heard her; he looked away. Mr. Wentworth, evidently, had no
imagination at all. »I have always thought,« he began, slowly, »that Gertrude's
character required a special line of development.«
    »Father,« repeated Charlotte, »consent.«
    Then, at last, Mr. Brand looked at her. Her father felt her leaning more
heavily upon his folded arm than she had ever done before; and this, with a
certain sweet faintness in her voice, made him wonder what was the matter. He
looked down at her and saw the encounter of her gaze with the young
theologian's; but even this told him nothing, and he continued to be bewildered.
Nevertheless, »I consent,« he said at last, »since Mr. Brand recommends it.«
    »I should like to perform the ceremony very soon,« observed Mr. Brand, with
a sort of solemn simplicity.
    »Come, come, that's charming!« cried Felix, profanely.
    Mr. Wentworth sank into his chair. »Doubtless,
