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28 Allerton should admire Miss Granard, beautiful as she is." "It is very fortunate," said Lady Anne, "for it will save me a world of trouble. Lord Allerton is quite unobjectionable. True, the peerage is modern; but Rotheles told me that there is not a mortgage on the estate." "And then," exclaimed Henrietta, "Lord Allerton is so handsome, I quite understand Miss Granard's falling in love with him." "In love!" cried Lady Anne, with every possible expression of scorn and surprise in her voice; "I beg that you will put no such nonsense into my daughter's head; and, I must say, that the sooner you put it out of your own the better." "To love a man like Lord Allerton," interrupted Miss Aubrey, "does not seem to me nonsense; but, if Mary does not love him, what does she marry him for?" "Why, what does a girl marry for?" cried her ladyship. "Mary marries for rank, independence—and because she well knows that she has not a shilling in the world." "I would not marry the man whom I did not love," ejaculated Miss Aubrey, "for any earthly consideration." "I hope you will not be silly enough to say this to Mary; not that it much matters. She knows that she is to be Lady Allerton. It was only last night,"