"Yes, doctor; he must marry money."
"And worth, Lady Arabella; and a pure feminine heart; and youth and beauty. I hope he will marry them all."
Could it be possible, that in speaking of a pure feminine heart, and youth and beauty, and such like gewgaws, the doctor was thinking of his niece? Could it be that he had absolutely made up his mind to foster and encourage this odious match?
The bare idea made Lady Arabella wrathful, and her wrath gave her courage. "He must marry money, or he will be a ruined man. Now, doctor, I am informed that things—words that is—have passed between him and Mary which never ought to have been allowed."
And now also the doctor was wrathful. "What things? what words?" said he, appearing to Lady Arabella as though he rose in his anger nearly a foot in altitude before her eyes. "What has passed between them? and who says so?"
"Doctor, there have been love-makings, you may take my word for it; love-makings of a very, very, very advanced description."
This, the doctor could not stand. No, not for Greshamsbury and its heir; not for the squire and all his misfortunes; not for Lady Arabella and the blood of all the de Courcys could he stand quiet and hear Mary thus accused. He sprang up another foot in height, and expanded equally in width as he flung back the insinuation.
"Who says so? Whoever says so, whoever speaks of Miss Thorne in such language, says what is not true. I will pledge my word—"
"My dear doctor, my dear doctor, what took place was quite clearly heard; there was no mistake about it, indeed."
"What took place? What was heard?"