Before sending off this reply, Augustus had taken the telegram up to Marion's room, to ask her advice in the matter. “You are quite right, Gusty,” said she; “for if Sedley cannot see papa, he can certainly see Lord Culduff.” “Lord Culduff,” cried he, in amazement “Why, what could Lord Culduff possibly know about my father's affairs? How could he be qualified to give an opinion upon them?” “Simply on the grounds of his great discrimination, his great acuteness, joined to a general knowledge of life, in which he has admittedly few rivals.” “Grant all that; but here are special questions, here are matters essentially personal; and with all his Lordship's tact and readiness, yet he is not one of us.” “He may be, though, and very soon, too,” replied she, promptly. “What do you mean?” asked he, in a voice of almost dismay. “Just what I say, Augustus; and I am not aware it is a speech that need excite either the amazement or the terror I see in your face at this moment.” “I _am_ amazed; and if I understand you aright, I have grounds to be shocked besides.” “Upon my word,” said she, in a voice that trembled with passion, “I have reason to congratulate myself on the score of brotherly affection. Almost the last words Jack spoke to me at parting were, 'For God's sake, shake off that old scamp;' and now you--that hold a very different position amongst us--you, who will one day be the head of the family, deliberately tell me you are shocked at the prospect of my being allied to one of the first names in the peerage.” “My dear Marion,” said he, tenderly, “it is not the name, it is not the rank I object to.” “It is his fortune, then? I'm sure it can't be his abilities.” “It is neither. It is simply that the man might be your grandfather.” “Well, sir,” said she, drawing herself up, and assuming a manner of intense hauteur, “and if _I_,--I conclude I am the person most to be consulted,--if I do not regard this disparity of years as an insurmountable obstacle, by what right can one of my family presume to call it such?” “My dear sister,” said he, “can you not imagine the right of a brother to consult for your happiness?”