“I need not ask if the match had your approval, Mr. Dobbin, because I am sure that you, as a friend of Mr. Hammond’s, must see what an advantage such a connection would be to him in his political career.”
“Certainly, your ladyship. Nothing could be better. It would go a long way in Tooting.”
“Ah! And now, do you know, I am almost afraid that the idea will have to be abandoned. I hesitate whether I ought to allow my daughter to think of Mr. Hammond any longer.”
“Dear me! I am very sorry to hear your ladyship say that.”
Her ladyship shook her head sadly.
“Yes. I have no doubt you understand the reason.”
The alderman’s face again clearly betraying that he had not the remotest idea of the reason, Despencer came to his assistance once more.
“The marchioness refers to Mr. Hammond’s attentions to this music-hall singer, Belle Yorke.”
Alderman Dobbin sat horror-struck. He was not acquainted with Belle Yorke by name, but of music-hall singers as a class his ideas could only have been expressed in language severely Biblical. The marchioness hastened to drive the nail home.
“All his friends must share the same feelings about this unfortunate attachment,” she observed, in a tone of sympathetic condolence. “What effect, in your opinion, Mr. Dobbin, would his marrying a girl of that kind have on his position here?”