"I am not such a fool as to suppose that you are to quarrel with a man because I don't approve his addressing your sister; but I do think that while this is going on, and while he perseveres in opposition to my distinct refusal, you need not associate with him in any special manner."
"I don't understand your objection to him, sir."
"I dare say not. There are a great many things you don't understand. But I do object."
"He's a very rising man. Mr. Roby was saying to me just now—"
"Who cares a straw what a fool like Roby says?"
"I don't mean Uncle Dick, but his brother,—who, I suppose, is somebody in the world. He was saying to me just now that he wondered why Lopez does not go into the House;—that he would be sure to get a seat if he chose, and safe to make a mark when he got there."
"I dare say he could get into the House. I don't know any well-to-do blackguard of whom you might not predict as much. A seat in the House of Commons doesn't make a man a gentleman as far as I can see."
"I think every one allows that Ferdinand Lopez is a gentleman."
"Who was his father?"
"I didn't happen to know him, sir."