"That he loves her." "And that she loves him?" "That he hopes so." "He has said more than that, I take it. They have engaged themselves to each other." "So I understand." "What do you think of it, Mrs. Roden?" "What can I think of it, Lord Hampstead? I hardly dare to think of it at all." "Was it wise?" "I suppose where love is concerned wisdom is not much considered." "But people have to consider it. I hardly know how to think of it. To my idea it was not wise. And yet there is no one living whom I esteem so much as your son." "You are very good, my lord." "There is no goodness in it,--any more than in his liking for me. But I can indulge my fancy without doing harm to others. Lady Kingsbury thinks that I am an idiot because I do not live exclusively with counts and countesses; but in declining to take her advice I do not injure her much. She can talk about me and my infatuations among her friends with a smile. She will not be tortured by any feeling of disgrace. So with my father. He has an idea that I am out-Heroding Herod, he having been Herod;--but there is nothing bitter in it to him. Those fine young gentlemen, my brothers, who are the dearest little chicks in the world, five and six and seven years old, will be able to laugh pleasantly at their elder brother when they grow up, as they will do, among the other idle young swells of the nation. That their brother and George Roden should be always together will not even vex them. They may probably receive some benefit themselves, may achieve some diminution of the folly natural to their position, by their advantage in knowing him. In looking at it all round, as far as that goes, there is not only satisfaction to me, but a certain pride. I am doing no more than I have a right to do. Whatever counter-influence I may introduce among my own people, will be good and wholesome. Do you understand me, Mrs. Roden?" "I think so;--very clearly. I should be dull, if I did not." "But it becomes different when one's sister is concerned. I am thinking of the happiness of other people." "She, I suppose, will think of her own." "Not exclusively, I hope." "No; not that I am sure. But a girl, when she loves--" "Yes; that is all true. But a girl situated like Frances is bound not to,--not to sacrifice those with whom Fame and Fortune have connected her. I can speak plainly to you, Mrs. Roden, because you know what are my own opinions about many things." "George has no sister, no girl belonging to him; but if he had, and you loved her, would you abstain from marrying her lest you should sacrifice your--connections?" "The word has offended you?" "Not in the least. It is a word true to the purpose in hand. I understand the sacrifice you mean. Lady Kingsbury's feelings would be--sacrificed were her daughter,--even her stepdaughter,--to become my boy's husband. She supposes that her girl's birth is superior to my boy's." "There are so many meanings to that word 'birth.'"