of my life when
you were a mere - hum - Baby, do not do it. You alone say you can't do it. I
provide you with valuable assistance to do it. I attach an accomplished and
highly bred lady - ha - Mrs. General, to you, for the purpose of doing it. Is it
surprising that I should be displeased? Is it necessary that I should defend
myself for expressing my displeasure? No!«
    Notwithstanding which, he continued to defend himself, without any abatement
of his flushed mood.
    »I am careful to appeal to that lady for confirmation, before I express any
displeasure at all. I - hum - I necessarily make that appeal within limited
bounds, or I - ha - should render legible, by that lady, what I desire to be
blotted out. Am I selfish? Do I complain for my own sake? No. No. Principally
for - ha hum - your sake, Amy.«
    This last consideration plainly appeared, from his manner of pursuing it, to
have just that instant come into his head.
    »I said I was hurt. So I am. So I - ha - am determined to be, whatever is
advanced to the contrary. I am hurt, that my daughter, seated in the - hum - lap
of fortune, should mope and retire, and proclaim herself unequal to her destiny.
I am hurt that she should - ha - systematically reproduce what the rest of us
blot out; and seem - hum - I had almost said positively anxious - to announce to
wealthy and distinguished society, that she was born and bred in - ha hum - a
place that I, myself, decline to name. But there is no inconsistency - ha - not
the least, in my feeling hurt, and yet complaining principally for your sake,
Amy. I do; I say again, I do. It is for your sake, that I wish you, under the
auspices of Mrs. General, to form a - hum - a surface. It is for your sake, that
I wish you to have a - ha - truly refined mind, and (in the striking words of
Mrs. General) to be ignorant of everything that is not perfectly proper, placid,
and pleasant.«
    He had been running down by jerks, during his last speech, like a sort of
ill-adjusted alarum. The touch was still upon his arm. He felt silent; and after
looking about the ceiling again, for a little while, looked down at her. Her
head drooped, and