“How horrid and cynical of you to talk like that! You know that you ought to get married yourself. Society expects it of you.”
Hammond shook his head.
“My dear marchioness, the views of society are the last thing I think of considering. My life is ordered by the views of Alderman Dobbin.”
“Alderman Dobbin? That person you asked me to send a card to? Who is he?”
“Really, this ignorance is discreditable to you, marchioness. Alderman Dobbin is the autocrat of the constituency I have the honor to represent, the Chairman of the Tooting Conservative Association. In me you behold Alderman Dobbin’s slave. He is my moral mentor and political taskmaster. Since I sat for Tooting I have ceased to be a free citizen with thoughts or ideas of my own. I am a mere puppet, the strings of which are pulled by him. The lips may be the lips of Hammond, but the voice is the voice of Alderman Dobbin.”
Lady Victoria raised her head with an appearance of interest during this speech. She now remarked:
“From what you say, I am sure he is a charming person. You have made me quite in love with him. I shall flirt with him when he comes.”
Hammond gazed at her with stern reproach.
“Lady Victoria, you commit yourself most painfully. Alderman Dobbin is married. Alderman Dobbin is the father of a large family. Alderman Dobbin, moreover, is a church-warden, and in the High Street of Tooting the sinner trembles when he passes the shop which bears Alderman Dobbin’s name and superscription.”
“Don’t you see that you are simply making me more determined by all this?” returned Victoria. “I shall feel like the loreley, or whatever they call it, luring the well-conducted fisherman to his destruction.”