"True; but so does wealth," interrupted Lady Rohallion, annoyed by her own mismanagement in the beginning. "You are rich, but my son is also rich, and he loves you, Flora, well, truly, and devotedly." "And have two days sufficed to summon all this truth and devotion?" "Flora, Flora, you are well aware that it has been an old purpose and hope, between your parents and his, to unite or cement their old hereditary friendship by a stronger tie, and that this intended marriage has been an object of solicitude to all----" "Save to those most interested in it--myself especially." "Do not say so, my dear child--the match is most suitable." A gesture of annoyance escaped Flora, but Lady Rohallion resumed: "Our families have known each other so long; it has been a friendship of three generations--Cosmo and you suit each other so admirably; and then the Ardgour lands run the whole length of the Bailiwick with our own." "The most convincing argument of all," replied Flora, in a tone which made Lady Rohallion colour deeply, and the secret annoyance of both was gradually rising to a height, though each strove to conceal it. "Consider our family, Flora!" exclaimed Lady Winifred, haughtily; "look at that gilded vane on yonder turret. It bears a date--1400; in that year, Sir Ranulph, first baron of Rohallion, was made Hereditary Admiral of the Firth of Clyde, from Glasgow Bridge to Ailsa Craig, by the Regent Duke of Albany. We are not people of yesterday!" Flora failed to perceive what this aqueous office had to do with her or her affairs. "In three years," she began. "I shall cease to be your ward----" "Three, by your father's will, Flora." "So do not let us embitter those three remaining years, my dear madam, by this project, a constant recurrence to which serves but to excite and pique by the attempt to control me." "I trust, my dear but wilful Flora, that we have not been unjust stewards in the execution of the trust your worthy parents bequeathed to us, and if the hope of a nearer and dearer connexion----" "Your son, the Master, is a brave and noble gentleman, I grant you," interrupted Flora, with quiet energy; "but save in name, we have been almost strangers to each other, and he is so many years my senior, that when we last met he treated me quite as a little girl--a child! Our tastes, habits, manners, and temper are all dissimilar; ah, madam, pardon me, but I never could love him!" "Never love Cosmo--_my_ Cosmo?" said Lady Rohallion, with indignant surprise. "Never as a husband, though dearly as a friend."