"Something is amiss. You cannot wonder that we should be anxious, knowing that we know how great is the importance of all this." "I cannot help your anxiety just at present, aunt Julia; but you should always remember that there will be slips between the cup and the lip." "Then there has been a slip? I knew it would be so. I always said so, and so did my brother." "I wish you would all remember that about such an affair as this, the less said the better." So saying, the lord walked out through the window and sauntered down to the river side. "It's all over," said aunt Julia. "I don't see why we should suppose that at present," said aunt Jane. "It's all over. I knew it as soon as I saw her face when she came in. She has said something, or done something, and it's all off. It will be a matter of over twenty thousand pounds a year!" "He'll be sure to marry somebody with money," said aunt Jane. "What with his title and his being so handsome, he is certain to do well, you know." "Nothing like that will come in his way. I heard Mr. Flick say that it was equal to half a million of money. And then it would have been at once. If he goes up to London, and about, just as he is, he'll be head over ears in debt before anybody knows what he is doing. I wonder what it is. He likes pretty girls, and there's no denying that she's handsome." "Perhaps she wouldn't have him." "That's impossible, Jane. She came down here on purpose to have him. She went out with him this morning to be made love to. They were together three times longer yesterday, and he came home as sweet as sugar to her. I wonder whether she can have wanted to make some condition about the money." "What condition?" "That she and her mother should have it in their own keeping." "She doesn't seem to be that sort of a young woman," said aunt Jane. "There's no knowing what that Mr. Goffe, Serjeant Bluestone, and her mother may have put her up to. Frederic wouldn't stand that kind of thing for a minute, and he would be quite right. Better anything than that a man shouldn't be his own master. I think you'd better go up to her, Jane. She'll be more comfortable with you than with me." Then aunt Jane, obedient as usual, went up to her young cousin's bedroom.