"Lord Ennismore has been duped into making Julia an offer." "I meant him for Clara, love, not Julia," cried his lady, hoping to ward off his reproach. "And you have given one of your daughters, Gertrude, to a creature diseased in body and mind." "What does that signify, my love? Julia will not think of his looks a month after her marriage, and she will be a peeress, with an immense estate." "You are marrying her to an idiot of quality." "Fiddlededee, Sir John, he enters a room as well as other people. Who makes a fuss about intellects, if a man of large fortune proposes to their daughter? I should die with shame if you advanced such musty notions before company. Besides, you asked Lord Ennismore to Wetheral yourself." "I did so," replied Sir John, "I did so; but I believed my daughters must be safe in their affections. I could not suppose Lord Ennismore would attract a woman's love; and I will not believe Julia cares for him. You have tutored her, Gertrude, to barter her soul for a coronet, and your system has corrupted her heart and feelings." He paced the room in unusual agitation of manner. Lady Wetheral perceived the tide of her powerful influence over her husband's mind was fast ebbing, and a _coup de main_ was the last resource of her inventive genius. She became indignant. "It is well, Sir John, my children have possessed a mother devoted to their interest, since you have ever been indifferent to their well-doing. Had I sat supinely in my room, as you have done in your study, my daughters had passed the prime of their days in insignificance; or, if one had changed the scene, it might have been her happy lot, perhaps, to move into dirty barracks with young Leslie, whom you persist in receiving at Wetheral, in spite of my remonstrances." "Leslie would not choose a wife from your group, my love. His idea of matrimonial comforts does not jump with your own." "Don't make me ill, Sir John, with any allusion to that young man; or imagine for a moment we could 'jump' in any sentiment together. Had I sat supinely looking on, as you have done, Isabel would never have married a wealthy commoner, or Julia become a peeress, with the glory of refusing Tom Pynsent." "Julia has done wrong in declining him for Ennismore; she has given up an honest fellow, for a poor, ill-nursed, unhealthy creature, with a mind as weak as his body." "I never can talk with you, Sir John, upon this kind of subject, your notions are so extremely contracted, and you are so blind to advantages." "What advantages, Gertrude, in Ennismore?"