"But I thought you were to marry Edith Brownlow."
"Who told you that, sir? I am sure Edith did not, nor yet her mother. But I believe these sort of things are often settled without consulting the principals."
"And what does my brother say?"
"Sir Gregory, you mean?"
"Of course I mean Sir Gregory. I don't suppose you'd ask your father."
"I never had the slightest intention, sir, of asking either one or the other. I don't suppose that I am to ask his leave to be married, like a young girl; and it isn't likely that any objection on family grounds could be made to such a woman as Mary Lowther."
"You needn't ask leave of any one, most noble Hector. That is a matter of course. You can marry the cook-maid to-morrow, if you please. But I thought you meant to live at Dunripple?"
"So I shall,—part of the year; if Sir Gregory likes it."
"And that you were to have an allowance and all that sort of thing. Now, if you do marry the cook-maid—"
"I am not going to marry the cook-maid,—as you know very well."