He closely questioned Lady Selina, with regard to all that had passed between her and her brother.
“Did he say anything?” at last he said—“did he say anything about—about Fanny?”
“Not much, papa; but what he did say, he said with kindness and affection,” replied her ladyship, glad to repeat anything in favour of her brother.
“Affection—pooh!” said the earl. “He has no affection; no affection for any one; he has no affection even for me.—What did he say about her, Selina?”
“He seemed to wish she should marry Lord Ballindine.”
“She may marry whom she pleases, now,” said the earl. “I wash my hands of her. I have done my best to prevent what I thought a disgraceful match for her—”
“It would not have been disgraceful, papa, had she married him six months ago.”
“A gambler and a roué!” said the earl, forgetting, it is to be supposed, for the moment, his own son’s character. “She’ll marry him now, I suppose, and repent at her leisure. I’ll give myself no further trouble about it.”
The earl thought upon the subject, however, a good deal; and before Mr Armstrong’s arrival he had all but made up his mind that he must again swallow his word, and ask his ward’s lover back to his house. He had at any rate become assured that if he did not do so, some one else would do it for him.
Mr Armstrong was, happily, possessed of a considerable stock of self-confidence, and during his first day’s journey, felt no want of it with regard to the delicate mission with which he was entrusted. But when he had deposited his carpet-bag at the little hotel at Kilcullen bridge, and found himself seated on a hack car, and proceeding to Grey Abbey, he began to feel that he had rather a difficult part to play; and by the time that the house was in sight, he felt himself completely puzzled as to the manner in which he should open his negotiation.