“Hast thou considered that the follies of youth may become the follies of manhood, and of age? What then?”
“We are not told to worry about what may be.”
“Ian has evidently been living and spending with people far above his means and his class.”
“The Lowland Scotch regard a minister as socially equal to any peer. Are not the servants of God equal, and more than equal, to the servants of the queen? No society is above either they or their children. That I have seen always. And young men of fine appearance and charming manners, like Ian, are welcome in every home, high or low. Yes, indeed!”
“Yet girls, as a rule, should not marry handsome men with charming manners, unless there is something better behind to rely on.”
“If thou had not been a handsome man with a charming manner, Rahal would not have married thee. What then?”
“I would have been a ruined man. I cared for nothing but thee.”
“I believe that a girl of moral strength and good intelligence should be trusted with the choice of her destiny. It is not always that parents have 239 a right to thrust a destiny they choose upon their daughter. If a man is not as good and as rich as they think she ought to marry they can point this out, and if they convince their child, very well; and if they do not convince her, also very well. Perhaps the girl’s character requires just the treatment it will evolve from a life of struggle.”
“Thou art talking nonsense, Rahal. Thy liking for the young man has got the better of thy good sense. I cannot trust thee in this matter.”