In this case Helen was more prepared than her father, though even she was taken by surprise. She had had her suspicions that the Rajah might take her soft glances and gently-spoken words as sufficient permission for him to speak to her father; and though she trembled at the possible result, there was something so deliciously gratifying to her vanity that she could not help enjoying the position. To be asked in marriage by a real sultan! What would the Miss Twettenhams say? and if she accepted him she would be sultana. The idea was dazzling at a distance, but even to her romance-loving brain there was something theatrical when it was looked at with the eyes of common sense. She could not accept him. It was absurd; and after all, perhaps he had no such idea as that in coming. It was, as her father thought, some matter of business, such as he had been in the habit of visiting her father about over and over again, and such as had resulted in the intimacy which made him a welcome guest at the house. She thought differently, however; and though she assumed surprise, she was in nowise startled when her father returned. "I say, Nelly!" he exclaimed, looking annoyed, and completely off his balance, "what the dickens have you been about?" "About, papa?" said the girl, raising her eyebrows, "I don't understand you!" "Then the sooner you do the better! I've quite enough to worry me without your foolery! Here's the Rajah come to see me on business." "Very well, papa, I don't understand business," she said, quietly. "But you'll have to understand it!" he cried, angrily. "Here, he says that you have been giving him permission to speak to me; and as far as I can understand him, he proposes for your hand!" "The Rajah, papa! Oh! absurd!" "Oh, yes, it's absurd enough, confound his copper-coloured insolence! But it puts me in a fix with him. If I offend him, I shall offend his people, or he'll make them offended, and I shall be a heavy loser. Did you tell him to speak to me?" "Certainly not, papa!" "Perhaps I misunderstood him, for he speaks horrible English. But whether or no, he proposes that you shall be his wife." "His wife, papa! Why, he has a dozen!" "Yes, my dear, of course; but then these fellows don't take that into consideration. What the deuce am I to do?" "Tell him it is an insult to an English lady to propose such a thing!" said Helen, haughtily. "Yes, that's easily said; but you must have been leading the fellow on." "He was your guest, papa, and I was civil to him," said Helen, coldly. "A deal too civil, I'll be bound! I'm sick of your civilities, Nell, and their consequences! Why can't you get engaged like any other girl? I wish to goodness you were married and settled!" "Thank you, papa," she replied in the same cold, indifferent manner. "Yes, but this fellow's waiting to see you. What am I to say." "What are you to say, papa? Really you ought to know!"