" And he flattered himself
he spoke rather sternly.
"I don't see what Madame Merle has to do with it. Why did you
apply to Madame Merle?"
"I asked her for an opinion-for nothing more. I did so because she
had seemed to me to know you very well."
"She doesn't know me so well as she thinks," said Osmond.
"I'm sorry for that, because she has given me some little ground for
hope."
Osmond stared into the fire a moment. "I set a great price on my
daughter."
"You can't set a higher one than I do. Don't I prove it by wishing
to marry her?"
"I wish to marry her very well," Osmond went on with a dry
impertinence which, in another mood, poor Rosier would have admired.
"Of course I pretend she'd marry well in marrying me. She couldn't
marry a man who loves her more-or whom, I may venture to add, she
loves more."
"I'm not bound to accept your theories as to whom my daughter
loves"-and Osmond looked up with a quick, cold smile.
"I'm not theorizing. Your daughter has spoken."
"Not to me," Osmond continued, now bending forward a little and
dropping his eyes to his boot-toes.
"I have her promise, sir!" cried Rosier with the sharpness of
exasperation.
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