It was Wilfrid’s turn to keep silence. What became of his plans? They were hardly in a way to be carried out as he had conceived them. A graver uneasiness was possessing him. Resolve would only grow by opposition, but there was more of pain in announcing an independent course than he had foreseen.
‘What are your practical proposals?’ his father inquired, his mollified tone the result of observing that he had made a certain impression, for he was distinctly one of the men who are to be overcome by yielding.
‘I had a proposal to make, but of such a kind that it is hardly worth while to speak of it. I shall have to reflect.’
‘Let me hear what you were going to say. There’s no harm in that, at all events.’
‘My idea was, that, with your consent and my aunt’s, Miss Hood should return just as
