The Proposal

         " Thank goodness I'd hate to explain Andy as a brother-in-law!
Hiacynth absently moved her fingers across the rose of her chanille bedspread. "Oh Puff, I just don't want to be married. We've never said that we love one another. And if I do love him, it's like some kind of kin, like a favorite cousin or something. No passion. If I do marry him it would be to save Papa from ruin."
"Yeah." Puff echoed.
"Or to spite any one of these envious hens who think I don't deserve anything good in my life."
" Oh stop being such a damp towel! Think of all the good you'll be doing for yourself. Yes, you'll be saving Papa from ruin but even if he were the richest man of earth, he'd still wouldn't approve of your going any further in your studies. I believe that Matthew would afford you with any manner of book of study that you'd like.