"Really, Miss Deane," he said at last, "you have piqued my curiosity in the strangest possible way. I hardly know in what terms to answer you, The position of this Miss Lloyd, who is so far above me in the social scale, would seem to render utterly absurd and Quixotic on my part any advances that I might make with the view of ultimately winning her hand." "Of course, if you are lacking in boldness and audacity," said Miss Deane, with the faintest possible sneer, "those are qualities which no one can lend you for the occasion, and the sooner we bring our interview to an end the better. But if your hesitation arises from the fact of your being short of funds, you need be under no apprehension on that score. Pardon me for speaking so plainly, but my cousin gave me to understand that you were not one of the richest of individuals--he insinuated, in fact, that you were almost penniless." "Not for the first time in my life, Miss Deane--in fact, I rather like being penniless, it keeps the circle of one's friends and acquaintances so limited and select." "To begin with--my cousin Matthew must lend you fifty pounds." "Fifty pounds! I like the first item of your programme vastly." "The first necessity in your case is that you should have the dress and appearance of a gentleman." "I quite agree with you, Miss Deane. We owe much to our tailor--in the way of gratitude." "I have said nothing to you respecting your friends and connections. I have assumed all along that you would be able to satisfy Sir Thomas on those points, should he ever choose to question you respecting them--which I don't for one moment think that he will do." "On the points you speak of, I do not doubt that I could satisfy either Sir Thomas Dudgeon or any one else." "Such being the case, and with the manners, dress, and appearance of a gentleman, it seems to me that you would have the campaign almost entirely in your own hands. You would be under the same roof with Miss Lloyd--an inestimable advantage in your case. You would be in the habit of seeing her daily, and might make yourself agreeable to her in many ways. Under such circumstances, where would be the harm if, now and then, you were to hint vaguely at your expectations--at your rich relations--at your fashionable friends? Neither would you altogether omit an occasional mention of your undergraduate days at Cambridge, nor of your travels abroad." "My dear Miss Deane, you might safely leave all the delicate little details, all the nuances of the picture, to me." "I am quite sure of that. Miss Lloyd is nothing but a simple, country-bred girl: you are a man of the world. _Voilà tout_." Gerald rose. "I may just mention this," said Olive: "Miss Lloyd will be of age in a few months. She will then be entirely her own mistress, and can give her hand, and her twenty thousand pounds with it, to the man she likes best, and no one will have the right or power to say her nay."