"But what has brought you, papa?"
"The Marquis, my dear, who, it seems to me, will, for some time to come, have a considerable influence on my doings."
"The Marquis!"
He had made up his mind that she should know everything. If her husband did not tell her, he would. "Yes, the Marquis. Perhaps I ought to say the Marchioness, only that I am unwilling to give that title to a lady who I think very probably has no right to it."
"Is all that coming up already?"
"The longer it is postponed the greater will be the trouble to all parties. It cannot be endured that a man in his position should tell us that his son is legitimate when that son was born more than a year before he had declared himself about to marry, and that he should then refuse to furnish us with any evidence."
"Have you asked him?" Mary, as she made the suggestion, was herself horror-stricken at the awfulness of the occasion.
"George has asked him."
"And what has the Marquis done?"
"Sent him back a jeering reply. He has a way of jeering which he thinks will carry everything before it. When I called upon him he jeered at me. But he'll have to learn that he cannot jeer you out of your rights."