Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/116

 long Scotch head, abominably full of brains. If we could get him on our side perhaps he might pull us together."

"You know, of course, that his mother kept the village shop at Ardnaleuchan?"

"So he tells me."

"Do you like the prospect of such a son-in-law?"

"Frankly, Charlotte, I don't. A tiresome business at the best of it. But there it is."

"Ought one to treat it so coolly?"

His Grace laid the Quarterly Review on the book-rest and plucked a little peevishly at the tuft of hair on his chin.

"The times are changing, you see. We are on the eve of strange things. Still, I took the liberty of telling him that as long as he remained a Radical and went up and down the country blackguarding me and mine, I should refuse to know him."

"And what said our fine gentleman?"

"He was amused. Whether he takes the hint remains to be seen. In any event it commits us to nothing."

Charlotte shook a dubious head. "You're shaping for a compromise, my friend. And in my view this is not a case for one."

"If she is set on marrying the brute what's going to stop her?"

The question was meant for a poser and a poser it proved. Somehow it left no ground for argument. Therefore, without further preface or apology, Lady Wargrave turned to a matter of even more vital consequence.