HORACE
[continuing]
I have been even more upset by what I have just learned from my sister.
PIKE
[absently]
Why, that's too bad.
HORACE
It is too bad—absurdly—monstrously bad! She tells me that she has done you the honor to present you to the family with which we are forming an alliance—to the Earl of Hawcastle—her fiancé's father—
PIKE
[with cheerful absent-mindedness—working]