"But Dick is all right in himself. He is everything that you and father could possibly wish."
"How about his relatives?" calmly and mercilessly inquired Mrs. Winton.
"He has always said he is quite sure his father was a gentleman by birth."
"About the last thing he would ever think of saying, my dear,—if it really were so."
This thrust went deep, and Doris's face was flooded with colour.
"You see, it is not merely a question of the man himself. He may be all you think—personally delightful. But when you marry a man, you adopt your husband's family, whatever they are. His mother becomes your mother-in-law. His sisters become your sisters-in-law. That is inevitable."
"Then—you know!"
"Know what?"
"About his people."
"He speaks of his grandfather on his mother's side as a clerk in some house of business,—and of her uncle as a farmer. That at least is honest of him."