What do you think of that, Ethel?
An old banker, rich enough for his daughter to curl her hair in bank-notes.

If I were you, I'd make a bargain for him." "If he had nothing the matter with him, and I only got one guinea out of him!" "Prudence! Well, it may be wiser." Ethel ran up to her room, hardly able to believe that the mighty proposal was made; and it had been so readily granted, that it seemed as if Richard's caution had been vain in making such a delay, that even Margaret had begun to fear that the street of by-and-by was leading to the house of never.

Now, however, it was plain that he had been wise.
Opportunity was everything; at another moment, their father might have been harassed and oppressed, and unable to give his mind to concerns, which now he could think of with interest, and Richard could not have caught a more favourable conjuncture.
Ethel was in a wild state of felicity all that evening and the next day, very unlike her brother, who, dismayed at the open step he had taken, shrank into himself, and in his shyness dreaded the discussion in the evening, and would almost have been relieved, if Mr.Wilmot had been unable to accept the invitation.

So quiet and grave was he, that Ethel could not get him to talk over the matter at all with her, and she was obliged to bestow all her transports and grand projects on Flora or Margaret, when she could gain their ears, besides conning them over to herself, as an accompaniment to her lessons, by which means she tried Miss Winter's patience almost beyond measure.

But she cared not--she saw a gathering school and rising church, which eclipsed all thought of present inattentions and gaucheries.