“You will go to her, I presume,” said Lady Connell, “and announce yourself?”
“No!”
“No! Why?”
“That is—I don’t know. Ellen Harmer is very virtuous, and is a young lady of surpassing charms. I don’t know what course to adopt. She might know me again. Being the daughter of a true old gentleman, I fear I shall have to leave the house as I came into it.”
“It’s quite a gratification,” said Lady Connell, with a toss of her head again, “it’s quite a gratification to find you are so scrupulous—much more so than you used to be.”
“More scrupulous than I used to be? How do you mean?”
“I mean that you have not shrunk from appealing to the affections of a young lady, despite her rank or birth.”
“Have I not? That’s all you know about it. I have ever respected rank, and real virtue more so. To whom do you allude, if indeed you allude to any one at all?”
“To Margaret, my daughter.”
“To what?”