I’m not so sure. If she’d given us her blessing and told us to do as we liked, we should probably have broken it off in three weeks. But she was really rather offensive about it. She refused to let Nellie see me, and the result was that we were always running across one another in Bond Street tea-shops. MRS. DOT. Monstrous! And so bad for the digestion. GERALD. Some time ago Lady Sellenger found out that we were writing to one another and so on, so she came to see me and said she’d made up her mind to take Nellie abroad for a year. She made me promise to hold no communication with her during that time, and agreed that if we were still of the same mind when they came back, she would withdraw the opposition and let us be properly engaged. MRS. DOT. An announcement in the _Morning Post_ and all that sort of thing? GERALD. I suppose so. MRS. DOT. And when are they coming back? GERALD. They came back last week. But I haven’t had a chance of speaking to Nellie yet. The year is up to-day, and this morning I had a note from Lady Sellenger asking if they might come to tea. MRS. DOT. And what are you going to say to her? GERALD. Good heavens! What can I say? I was poor enough a year ago, but now I’m penniless. I’m bound to ask for my release. MRS. DOT. Then why on earth have you been trying to make me utterly miserable? GERALD. You know, I don’t want to seem an awful prig, but I don’t think I should much like doing anything shabby. If Nellie wants me to keep my promise I shan’t draw back. MRS. DOT. Oh, but she won’t. She’ll be only too glad to get rid of you. GERALD. I’m afraid there’s something else I must tell you. MRS. DOT. More? Don’t say you’ve got a horrible past, because I shan’t turn a hair. GERALD. No, it’s not that. You know that Lord Hollington is a relation of mine. MRS. DOT. Only a fifteenth cousin, isn’t he? Far too distant to brag about. GERALD. A year ago three lives stood between me and the peerage. It seemed impossible that I could ever come into anything. MRS. DOT. Well? GERALD. But last winter my cousin George unfortunately broke his neck in the hunting-field, and his poor old father died of the shock. If anything happened to my cousin Charles everything would come to me. MRS. DOT. And Lady Sellenger would doubtless withdraw her opposition to your marriage. GERALD. She’s a very nice woman, but she has rather a keen eye for the main chance. MRS. DOT. Even her best friend would hesitate to call her disinterested. But why should anything happen to Lord Hollington? He’s quite young, isn’t he? I saw his engagement announced in the _Morning Post_ a little while ago. GERALD. He’s out in India at this moment. He’s a soldier, you know. It appears there’s some trouble on the North-West Frontier, and he’s in command of the expedition. MRS. DOT. Oh, but nothing is going to happen to him. He’ll live till he’s eighty. GERALD. I’m sure I hope he will. MRS. DOT. Say again that you love me, Gerald.