"For the present, grandmother. For the present we are going to say nothing. A little time before my father died he told me who I was. We had lost our money, but that did not matter as my father was provided for here. When I came to find out how the land lay, to my surprise I discovered that the only woman I could ever care for was installed at the Hall as mistress. I had no idea that this was going to happen when I met Mary two years ago in Paris. Her father had not assumed the family name then. And when I came face to face with Mary and held her in my arms, I knew that the old love was stronger than ever. And here was a solution. Those people were occupying my place, the place that belonged by birth to me, Sir Ralph Dashwood. If I had proclaimed and asked Mary to marry me, she would have consented. She would have regarded it as her duty to do so. But that is not the marriage of my dreams. Perhaps I am romantic: I want Mary to marry me, me, plain Ralph Darnley, for love of me, and deem the family pride well lost for a good man's affection. It is the living, breathing woman I want, not the lovely mistress of that family who puts the pride of the Dashwoods in front of everything else. Suffering and trouble and poverty shall be her portion. She shall go out into the world and see what noble souls are there who rise superior to fierce temptation though they have no family pride to boast of. Then, when the scales have fallen from Mary's eyes, and she sees as I do, then will I ask her to share my life with me. My dream is to come back here with a bride who deems love and pity and sympathy to be far above the steady sentiment that says, 'I am a Dashwood, and the rest are as dirt under my feet.' You see what I mean, don't you? And that is why I am asking you to help me in the matter. Let this little imposter strut his passing hours on the stage; let him be our puppet. I shall know how to punish him when the time comes." CHAPTER XXXIII. A REBEL AGAINST FATE Lady Dashwood smiled through her tears. She had eyes of affection for this tall, handsome, earnest man who paced up and down the room now with the burning words on his lips. He was moved to the very heart; it seemed to him that his scheme was the only way. Lady Dashwood felt that she could hesitate no longer. "You are very eloquent, Ralph," she said, "and whatever the faults of your scheme may be, you are terribly in earnest. It is not for me to stand in the way. God knows the family pride that I did so much to foster has done harm enough. It drove your father away from home, it came between me and my son and my husband, and rendered all the best years of my life a blank and a desolation. Some day, when I have the courage, I will tell you why your father left home, and the shameful deceit that I put upon him. And all to save the family dignity! And now Mary is as hard as I ever was. Still, the good that lies in that girl of mine----"