Miss Mary (interrupting). In other words, your client, my cousin, having ruined my father, having turned his own widowed relation out of doors, and sent me, her daughter, among strangers to earn her bread; having seen my mother sink and die in her struggle to keep her family from want,--this man now seeks to condone his offences--pardon me, sir, if I use your own legal phraseology--by offering me a home; by giving me part of his ill-gotten wealth, the association of his own hypocritical self, and the company of his shameless, profligate son--Starbottle (interrupting). A moment, Miss Morris,--a single moment! The epithets you have used, the--er--vigorous characterization of our--er--conduct, is--er--within the--er--strict rules of legal advocacy, correct. We are--er--rascals! we are--er--scoundrels! we are--er--well, I am not--er--prepared to say that we are not--er--demn me--hypocrites! But the young man you speak of--our son, whose past life (speaking as Col. Starbottle) no one more sincerely deprecates than myself,--that young man has reformed; has been for the past few months a miracle of sobriety, decorum, and industry; has taken, thanks to the example of--er--friends, a position of integrity in his father's business, of filial obedience in his father's household; is, in short, a paragon; and, demn me, I doubt if he's his father's son.
Miss Mary. Enough, sir! You are waiting for my answer. There is no reason why it should not be as precise, as brief, and as formal as your message. Go to my cousin; say that you saw the person he claims as his relation; say that you found her, a poor schoolmistress, in a rude mining camp, dependent for her bread on the scant earnings of already impoverished men, dependent for her honor on the rude chivalry of outcasts and vagabonds; and say that then and there she repudiated your kinship, and respectfully declined your invitation.
Starbottle (aside). Ged! Star! this is the--er--female of your species! This is the woman--the--er--one woman--for whom you are responsible, sir!--personally responsible!
Miss Mary (coldly). You have my answer, sir.
Col. Starbottle. Permit me--er--single moment,--a single moment!
Between the er--present moment, and that of my departure--there is an--er--interval of twelve hours. May I, at the close of that interval--again present myself--without prejudice, for your final answer?
Miss Mary (indifferently). As you will, sir. I shall be here.
Col. Starbottle. Permit me. (Takes her hand gallantly.) Your conduct and manner, Miss Morris, remind me--er--singularly--of--er beautiful creature--one of the--er--first families. (Observing MISS MARY regarding him amusedly, becomes embarrassed.) That is--er--I mean--er--er--good morning, Miss Morris! (Passes by schoolhouse door, retreating and bowing, and picks up flowers from door-step.)
Good morning!
Miss Mary. Excuse me, Col. Starbottle (with winning politeness), but I fear I must rob you of those flowers. I recognize them now as the offering of one of my pupils. I fear I must revoke my gift (taking flowers from astonished colonel's hand), all except a single one for your buttonhole. Have you any choice, or shall I (archly) choose for you? Then it shall be this. (Begins to place flowers in buttonhole, COL. STARBOTTLE exhibiting extravagant gratitude in dumb show. Business prolonged through MISS MARY's speech.) If I am not wrong, colonel, the gentleman to whom you so kindly pointed out the road this morning was not a stranger to you.