“Ah, Severn, she is a good girl--a noble girl, but--well, frankly, I am rather glad that this affair with Clifton has come to an end. It will be years before Clifton is anything but the merest wire-puller--a paltry provincial sort of jobbing jerrymander--that was--he will be--not without his uses, of course--those organisms have their uses to us; but I think that my daughter has every right to look for some one--some one, in short, more in her own rank in life. You heard, of course, that Clifton had been a fool--that it would be impossible for us to entertain any longer the idea of----” “I saw Josephine yesterday. I am quite of your way of thinking in this matter. Clifton behaved badly from the first--inducing her to do an underhand thing--I know that her better nature recoiled from it. I cannot understand how you ever came to give your consent, West.” “Well, you see, my dear Severn, I believed that she loved him, and a girl’s heart--ah, Severn, Severn, when the prospect of one’s daughter’s happiness----” “That is what I want to talk to you about, West--her future happiness--and yours.” “If you are going to talk to me about that man from Australia--or is it New Zealand?--whom she fancies she loves, you may spare yourself the trouble, my dear friend--I decline to discuss a man so obviously--flagrantly ineligible.” “I have found out a good deal about him during the past month, and I have heard nothing except what is good.” “Good--good--what signifies goodness--I mean, of course, that my daughter is now in a very different position from that she occupied six months ago. The best families in the land might receive her with open arms. But a Colonial--well, of course, they did very well in the war, the Colonials, and the mother country is proud of them--yes, quite proud of them. But for my daughter to marry a man who does not know his own father----” “I know all about his father, though he does not.” “I don’t want to know, anything, West. His father may have been the Archbishop of Canterbury for all I care; but the chances are that he was a convict--or a descendant of convicts.” “You have not guessed very wide of the mark; his father was a convict.” “What; and you are here to suggest that--that--good lord, Severn, are you mad--oh, you must be mad?” “I do not consider that he is anything the worse for being the son of a convict, West. There is always the possibility of a convict being innocent.” “Oh, they all affirm their innocence, of course. Now, that is all I want to hear about either father or son. You will stay to lunch, I hope--oh, yes, you must stay to lunch. The Marquis may drop in afterwards; his son is certainly coming. You know Lord Lullworth--a promising young fellow, Severn--quite promising. Come upstairs; Lady Gwendolen will be pleased.” “One moment, my dear West. I happen to know that the convict father of Pierce Winwood, as he calls himself, was innocent of the crime for which he suffered.”