“Father,” interrupted Hector, “it is no fancy—least of all a sudden one! I fell in love with Annie the very first time I saw her waiting at table. It is true I did not understand what had befallen me for some time; but I do, and I did from the first, and now forever I shall both love and worship Annie!”
“ Mr. Hector,” said Annie, “it was too bad of you to listen. I did not know anyone was there but your father. You were never intended to hear; and I did not think you would have done such a dishonorable thing. It was not like you, Mr. Hector!”
“How was I to know you had secrets with my father, Annie? Dishonorable or not, the thing is done, and I am glad of it—especially to have heard what you had no intention of telling me.”
“I could not have believed it of you, Mr. Hector!” persisted Annie.
“But, now that I think of it,” suggested Mr. Macintosh, “may not your mother think she has something to say in the matter between you?”
This was a thought already dawning upon her that terrified Annie; she knew, indeed, perfectly how his mother would regard Hector’s proposal, and she dared not refer the matter to her decision.
“I must be out of the house first, Mr. Hector,” she said—and I think she meant—“before I confess my love.”
The impression Annie had made upon her master may be judged from the fact that he rose and went, leaving his son and the parlormaid together.
What then passed between them I cannot narrate precisely. Overwhelmed by Hector’s avowal, and quite unprepared as she had been