"Will you explain the reason?"
"Yes, it is as well to be candid with you: my mother, whom both Lena and myself respect beyond every one and everything else in the world, has made up her mind that my sister shall contract a distinguished alliance."
"What do you mean by that? I am a gentleman and I have a moderate income."
"Don't think for a moment," Alfred hastened to say, "that I intended to cast any reflection upon you. My mother tried in Paris to make Lena marry a French count, and now she has set her heart on an English lord."
Jack felt a quivering at the heart.
"Noblemen are scarce in this democratic country," he said.
"Admitted; but my mother has already selected her future son-in-law."
"Will you kindly tell me who this fortunate scion of the aristocracy is?" inquired Jack, in a cold, hard voice.
"It is your enemy."
"Lord Maltravers?"