Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/172

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LADY ANNE GRANARD.
167

divers ways of introducing the subject during the three courses, and of course did exactly the reverse of what he intended. Instead of ingeniously bringing the conversation round to the point he wished, he made a desperate rush, and exclaimed abruptly, "Do you know I am going to be married?"

"What heiress have you brought down?" cried his sister.

"You are never going to be such a fool," said Lord Penrhyn.

"I should despise myself," replied Charles, with un petit air de sentiment, "were I capable of marrying for money."

"All for love, and the world well lost," interrupted Lady Penrhyn.

"I certainly," returned her brother, "consider love indispensable in marriage."

"Money is much more so," exclaimed Lord Penrhyn; "you cannot marry on three hundred a year."

"Oh," cried her ladyship, "I see the whole ménage; they will take a first floor over a baker's shop, to save fire, and live upon red herrings during the week, with a mutton chop by way of meat on a Sunday."

"I think," replied Charles, "we might do better than that even on three hundred a year. But I frankly confess, that, with my habits and ideas, though I could put aside luxuries, I could not en-