"We think differently. Why did you cross my path? Why didn't you marry that woman who wanted you—Dunallan's daughter?"
Mr. Graydon looked thunderstruck.
"You have forgotten, sir; Lady Jane married my friend Gerald Trevithick."
"Because she couldn't marry you. He was an idiot to marry her. Everyone saw her infatuation but he and—am I to believe?—you."
"Impossible," muttered Mr. Graydon; "I barely knew her. I never thought of her."
The old lord waved away his words contemptuously.
"She had no money, but she had connections, and she would have had ambitions if she had married you and not Trevithick. The woman was head over ears in love with you, man."
"I can't believe it, sir. But let it be. It is all five-and-twenty years ago."
"And Mary is dead, and you have three girls."
"Yes, sir."