JANET
My dear father, you’re infatuated about your De Mullins. Who are the De Mullins, after all? Mere country squires who lived on here down at Brendon generation after generation. What have they ever done that I should want Johnny to be like them? Nothing. There’s not one of them who has ever distinguished himself in the smallest degree or made his name known outside his native village. The De Mullins are, and have always been, nobodies. Look at their portraits. Is there a single one of them that is worth a second glance? Why they never even had the brains to be painted by a decent artist. With the result that they aren’t worth the canvas they’re painted on. Or is it board? I’d make a bonfire of them if they were mine.