" Then there was a long pause, during
which Harry stood twiddling his fingers. He had nothing farther to
suggest, but he thought that his uncle might say something. "Shall I
come again to-morrow, Uncle Prosper?" he said.
"I have got a plan," said Uncle Prosper.
"What is it, uncle?"
"I don't know that it can lead to anything. It's of no use, of course,
if the young lady will wait the three years."
"I don't think she's at all anxious," said Harry.
"You might marry almost at once."
"That's what I should like."
"And come and live here."
"In this house?"
"Why not? I'm nobody. You'd soon find that I'm nobody."
"That's nonsense, Uncle Prosper. Of course you're everybody in your own
house."
"You might endure it for six months in the year."
Harry thought of the sermons, but resolved at once to face them boldly.
"I am only thinking how generous you are."
"It's what I mean. I don't know the young lady, and perhaps she mightn't
like living with an old gentleman. In regard to the other six months,
I'll raise the two hundred and fifty pounds to five hundred pounds. If
she thinks well of it, she should come here first and let me see her.
She and her mother might both come." Then there was a pause.
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