"But are you sure it's quite right, sir?"
Not catching my meaning he laughed.
"Right?" he said, holding the point of his nose aside between the tips
of his left thumb and first finger. "Guess it's about as right as law
and wax can make it."
"I don't mean that, sir. I mean. . . ."
"What?" he said, facing round.
Then trembling and stammering I told him. I did not love Lord Raa. Lord
Raa did not love me. Therefore I begged him for my sake, for his sake,
for everybody's sake (I think I said for my mother's sake also) to
postpone our marriage.
At first my father seemed unable to believe his own ears.
"Postpone? Now? After all this money spent? And everything signed and
sealed and witnessed!"
"Yes, if you please, sir, because. . . ."
I got no farther, for flinging down his razor my father rose in a
towering rage.
"Are you mad? Has somebody been putting the evil eye on you? The
greatest match this island has ever seen, and you say postpone--put it
off, stop it, that's what you mean. Do you want to make a fool of a man?
At the last moment, too. Just when there's nothing left but to go to the
High Bailiff and the Church! . . . But I see--I see what it is. It's
that young Conrad--he's been writing to you."