"Would it? Then I think that perhaps I had better counsel George not to go to Hendon Hall."
"My sister is not there. They are all in Germany."
"He had better not go where your sister will be thought of."
"I would not quarrel with your son for all the world."
"It will be better that you should. Do not suppose that I am pleading for him." That, however, was what he did suppose, and that was what she was doing. "I have told him already that I think that the prejudices will be too hard for him, and that he had better give it up before he adds to his own misery, and perhaps to hers. What I have said has not been in the way of pleading,—but only as showing the ground on which I think that such a marriage would be inexpedient. It is not that we, or our sister, are too bad or too low for such contact; but that you, on your side, are not as yet good enough or high enough."
"I will not dispute that with you, Mrs. Roden. But you will give him my message?"
"Yes; I will give him your message."
Then Lord Hampstead, having spent a full hour in the house, took his departure and rode away.
"Just an hour," said Clara Demijohn, who was still looking out of Mrs. Duffer's window. "What can they have been talking about?"
"I think he must be making up to the widow," said Mrs. Duffer, who was so lost in surprise as to be unable to suggest any new idea.