'
'How many of our people?'
'Twenty-seven.'
'Did all the girls wear caps?'
'Most of them.'
Jane was rather surprised at the shortness of her cousin's answers,
but she went on, as he stood before the fire, apparently in deep
thought.
'Was Miss Burnet confirmed? She is the dullest girl I ever knew, and
she is older than I am. Was she confused?'
'She was.'
'Did you give Mary Wright a ticket?'
'No.'
'Then, of course, you did not give one to Ned Long. I thought you
would never succeed in making him remember which is the ninth
commandment.'
'I did not refuse him.'
'Indeed! did he improve in a portentous manner?'
'Not particularly.'
'Well, you must have been more merciful than I expected.'
'Indeed!'
'Robert, you must have lost the use of your tongue, for want of us to
talk to. I shall be affronted if you go into a brown study the first
day of seeing me.'
He smiled in a constrained manner, and after a few minutes said, 'I
have been considering whether this is a fit time to tell you what
will give you pain. You must tell me if you can bear it.'
'About Lily, or the little ones?'
'No, no! only about yourself. Your father wished me to speak to you,
but I would not have done so on this first meeting, but what you have
just been saying makes me think this is the best occasion.
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