‘Louisa, my dear, you are the subject of a proposal of marriage that has been made to me.’ Again he waited, and again she answered not one word. This so far surprised him, as to induce him gently to repeat, ‘a proposal of marriage, my dear.’ To which she returned, without any visible emotion whatever:
1854, Charles Dickens, “Chapter XV”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […]