"Be acquainted with her? Really----" "I thought that, being a native of Oldchester, you might--a--be able to tell me something about her." "Not much, I fear," replied Theodore. He felt tempted to add that in Oldchester there were natives and natives. "She's--a--rich, isn't she?" pursued Mr. Cheffington. "Not that I know of," answered Theodore, staring a little. "Rich is, perhaps, too much to say. At any rate, she is--a--quite well----" "Well off? Oh, as to that----" "At any rate, she is quite well-to-do, I presume!" Theodore had never considered the question, but he said, "Oh yes," at a venture; and then suddenly a light flashed upon his mind. Perhaps Mrs. Dobbs _was_ rich, after all. Though she lived in so humble a style she might, perhaps, have laid by money. "She appears to be a person of--a--great--good sense," said Mr. Lucius Cheffington, remembering how Mrs. Dormer-Smith had stated that she declined to give any money-assistance to Augustus. And after that he made a second very low bow, and brought the interview to an end. Little had Theodore Bransby expected to hear Mrs. Dobbs discussed and approved by a member of the noble house of Castlecombe. He had noticed that Mrs. Dormer-Smith systematically avoided any mention of the vulgar old woman. But then Mrs. Dormer-Smith was a person of the very finest taste. And, to be sure, it could scarcely be expected that Mr. Lucius Cheffington should feel Augustus's _mésalliance_ as acutely as it was felt by Augustus's own sister. Besides, if, as really seemed possible, the ironmonger's widow turned out to be a moneyed person----! But it must be recorded of Theodore, that not even the idea of her having money reconciled him to Mrs. Dobbs. He said to himself afterwards, when he was meditating on what he had heard, that nothing so convincingly proved how much he was in love with Miss Cheffington, as his being ready to forgive her even her grandmother! CHAPTER XV.