“Good gracious, how shocking!” said Sophy.
“I’m sorry,” said Guss.
“Why, Frank,” said their mother, now excited into absolute animation; “his fortune was more than double hers, wasn’t it?—who’ll have it now?”
“It was, mother; five times as much as hers, I believe.”
“Gracious powers! and who has it now? Why don’t you tell me, Frank?”
“His sister Fanny.”
“Heavens and earth!—I hope you’re not going to let her quarrel with you, are you? Has there been anything between you? Have there been any words between you and Lord Cashel? Why don’t you tell me, Frank, when you know how anxious I am?”
“If you must know all about it, I have not had any words, as you call them, with Fanny Wyndham; but I have with her guardian. He thinks a hundred and twenty thousand pounds much too great a fortune for a Connaught viscount. However, I don’t think so. It will be for time to show what Fanny thinks. Meanwhile, the less said about it the better; remember that, girls, will you?”
“Oh, we will—we won’t say a word about it; but she’ll never change her mind because of her money, will she?”
“That’s what would make me love a man twice the more,” said Guss; “or at any rate show it twice the stronger.”