"I'll tell you what, Lord Castlewell—"
"Don't go on about the Speaker, Mr. O'Mahony,—pray don't."
"You always begin,—but I won't. I didn't come here to speak about him at all. And the Chairman of Committees is positively worse. You know there's a creature called Chairman of Committees?"
"Now, Mr. O'Mahony, I really must beg that you will fight your political battles anywhere but here. I'm not a politician. How is your charming daughter this morning?"
"She is anything but charming. I hardly know what to make of her, but I find that I am always obliged to do what she tells me." There was another allusion to the Speaker on the lord's tongue, but he restrained himself. "She has sent me here to say that she wants the marriage to be broken off."
"Good Heavens!"
"She does. She says that you intend to marry her because she's a singing girl;—and now she can't sing."
"Not exactly that," said the lord.
"And she thinks she oughtn't to have accepted you at all,—that's the truth." The lord's face became very long. "I think myself that it was a little too hurried. I don't suppose you quite knew your own minds."
"If Miss O'Mahony repents—"