"Do you wish me to intercede?" Madame Merle asked with her fine arms folded and her handsome mouth drawn up to the left.
"If you could say a good word for me I should be greatly obliged. There will be no use in my troubling Miss Osmond unless I have good reason to believe her father will consent."
"You're very considerate; that's in your favour. But you assume in rather an off-hand way that I think you a prize."
"You've been very kind to me," said the young man. "That's why I came."