“And he actually married you--that quiet old gentleman! Well! if you’d told me marriage was in his line, I’d ’ave said you was quite mistook. And the Doctor--what did ’e say to it, eh, Hannah?--I mean--my lady!” “You don’t go to suppose as we asked the Doctor’s leave, or anybody else’s?” replied the Markiness, with a fine scorn; “the Markiss was old enough to know his own mind, I s’pose! And the Doctor ain’t a doctor any longer either! He’s a Baron--the Baron von Steinberg, and ’as come into a big fortune of thousands and thousands of pounds a year.” “O! you don’t go to tell me as the Doctor’s a haristocrat, too?” cried Mrs. Battleby, who felt as if all her old acquaintances had suddenly drifted from her into realms above. “’E who was such a nice-speaking young gentleman! A Baron! Well! I never! And money into the bargain! No wonder as they both left the hattics!” “The Baron ’as a lovely ’ouse in Portland Place,” continued Hannah, “the most beautiful ’ouse as you ever see--all statues and pictures and flowering plants. You can’t ’ear your feet in ’is carpets, and ’e keeps ten or twelve servants. He’s rolling in riches, is the Baron.” “My!” gasped Mrs. Battleby, too exhausted by astonishment to be able to say any more. “And you, my dear,” she resumed, after a pause, “’ow do you git on with the cooking and that? The Sig-nor, ’e wasn’t very particular, but if I remembers rightly, you didn’t know nothink of cooking, or of much else when you fust come to me--did you?” “No! nor now either,” responded Hannah, with her grandest air, “I ’ave no call to do anything of the sort. My servant does all that for me!” “_Your servant!_ Lor! and you keep a servant!” echoed the landlady. “I never! But in coorse the Sig-nor, being a Markiss, would now, wouldn’t ’e? And ’ave you told all this to your pore mother and father, who ’ave been sadly about you, ever since you runned away from me!” “No! Mrs. Battleby, and don’t mean to, neither! You don’t suppose as the Markiss would let such people as my mother and father come about the ’ouse! It would bemean his rank! They carst me off and they must keep to theirselves--as well as that ill-mannered young man Joseph Brushwood! I wouldn’t stop to speak to ’em, not if I met ’em in the road.” “Well! Hannah, you ’ave grown ’igh,” replied the other, “but I ’opes as you’ve given up all them sperrits and devils and things as beset you ’ere. The Markiss won’t allow them about ’im, I expect!” “You only says that because you’re so ignorant, Mrs. Battleby,” said the Markiness, tossing her head; “those who know about the matter says they’re Science, and all the aristocracy are running after them like mad! They call them ‘angels’ not ‘devils’, and they _do_ say,” continued the girl, lowering her voice, and bending towards the landlady, “that Royalty’s crazy about it, too, and that if I chose to go to the Palace and show ’em what I can do, that I should be made a duchess in my own right!”