"Old wives' scandal, I expect."
"Perhaps: perhaps not. Anyhow, I'd rather have no scandal, old wives' or any other, about my wife's family."
"I'm awfully fond of her," said Dick.
"Well, as I said, it's your look-out. I don't know what Mary'll say, and—you've only got six hundred a year of your own, Dick."
"It seems to me we're in the deuce of a hurry—" began Dick feebly, but his brother interrupted him.
"Come, Dick, do you suppose Kilshaw would have come to me, if he hadn't thought the matter serious? It wasn't a very pleasant interview for him. I expect you've been making the pace pretty warm."
Dick did not venture on a denial. He shifted about uneasily in his seat, and lit a cigarette with elaborate care.
"I don't want to be disagreeable," pursued the Governor, "but both for your sake and mine—not to speak of the girl's—I won't have anything that looks like trifling with her. You must make up
your mind; you must go on, or you must drop it."
"How the devil can I drop it? I'm bound to meet her two or three times a week, and I can't cut her."