in the hope of wheedling Lord Wentworthdale into marriage with Georgiana, though the girl's heart might be broken in the operation, at the very time when you were a better match than she, that is, the mother, had a right to expect?"
"She explained that away entirely, Mr. Palmer—entirely. At the time the old Marquis went there so much, it was to see Lady Anne herself. She as good as said so in her letter to my grandfather—of course, as it was a delicate subject, she could not be explicit, you know; but she told us, positively, 'that a malicious report, tending to criminate Lieutenant Hales in her eyes, as a mother, though not, perhaps, in those of the gay world, had been the true cause of her refusal. That reason she did not choose to mention at the time, as it might injure me in the eyes of my venerable relatives (so it would, you know), but that having most providentially—yes! providentially discovered that the person alluded to was Lieutenant Halls, of a quite different ship, she now came forward to do me justice—to declare my personal character was as respectable in her sight as my family connections and my noble profession—yes! she said noble profession, and—"
