“Now, that Miss Kirk,” Lady Jane exclaimed, not heeding him, “at least she was pretty. No one ever denied that, I suppose. Well, that was some excuse; but it’s positively disgusting to see a man of sixty----” “Fifty-five,” interrupted the Colonel. “--of nearly fifty-six devoting himself to a miserable, dowdy little rat of a London governess, who came here with a blotchy face and a hump on one shoulder, and her hair drawn back like a skinned rabbit’s!” “Dear me!” exclaimed the Colonel, with exasperating mildness. “And besides,” Lady Jane concluded, sticking up her aristocratic nose in wrath, “she’s distinctly plebeian!” “I’m sorry, mother, but you’re quite mistaken,” said Lionel, looking up from his paper, and bending his brows. “She talks just as we do, and nobody could possibly tell that she didn’t belong to our set.” Lady Jane stared at her eldest son in surprise. They were all three in the mess-room after luncheon. “My dear Lionel,” she retorted, with pitying scorn, “if you don’t know a lady when you see one, I really can’t teach you the difference, can I?” “Miss Scott is a lady in every way,” Lionel answered, with a good deal of emphasis, and fixing his eyes on his mother’s in an odd way. “Good heaven!” cried Lady Jane. “I believe you’re another of her victims!” “I am going to marry Miss Scott in June,” Lionel said, rising suddenly, and looking down at her and his father--for he was very tall. “What?” cried Lady Jane, her jaw dropping. “What?” cried the Colonel, no longer mild. And the walls of the mess-room echoed “what” in the name of the absent members of the family. “Are you quite mad?” asked Lady Jane, breathless in her amazed surprise. “Impudent puppy!” the Colonel cried, getting red in the face. “My dear, the girl must leave the house this instant!” “I’ll send for her and tell her so at once!” “It’s not of the least use to get so excited,” said Lionel, calmly sitting down and taking up his paper again. “We shall be married in June, and there’s nothing more to be said.” Thereupon he appeared to go on reading, without paying any more attention to his father and mother. “This is monstrous!” Lady Jane was beside herself. “Lionel!” She came and stood beside his chair. “You’re not in earnest! This is some silly attempt at a joke!” “Drop it, my boy!” cried the Colonel, taking the cue from his wife. “I’m not joking.” Lionel looked up quietly. “You’ll be very fond of her some day, when you get over the idea that she’s been governess to the girls. Really, there’s nothing to be said. I made up my mind long ago; and as the estate is entailed you can’t even cut me off with a shilling! Happily, you are quite powerless, for we can live very comfortably on my five hundred a year.”