"Would he have refused his consent?"
"It is most likely."
"Ah! However careless and unmindful my brother might have been in worldly matters, he was a gentleman and a man of fine instincts. You married a man beneath you?"
"You are wrong, uncle. I married a gentleman far above me."
"And yet you tell me your father would have refused his consent."
"You forget, uncle. My dear father was truly what you have described him--a man of fine instincts."
"Well?"
"We were poor; my husband's family are very wealthy."
"I am corrected. The fact would have caused my brother to act as you say, unless, indeed, the consent of your husband's parents had been previously obtained."
"It was not, uncle."