The marquis waited, as if to give him time to digest this charmingly candid statement, then remarked, in as casual a voice as if he were commenting on the weather:
“Lady Grace’s grandfather made his money and his title out of beer. She will be immensely rich, I believe, and will not require the small sum—though it will be my all—which I shall leave her.”
He paused and looked at his white hands, then in an utterly wearied voice, as if he had exhausted all the interest in the subject, said:
“I am glad you think her so charming! Pray, do not let me keep you from her any longer!” and he rose and stood like a statue.
Lord Cecil pushed his chair back and rose, his handsome face rather pale, his eyes flashing.
“Do I understand, sir—do you want me to understand that you wish me to——” He hesitated a moment, then brought it out, bluntly—“to marry Lady Grace?”
The marquis surveyed him from under half-closed eyelids, as if he were some insignificant object at a distance.
“Certainly not!” he said, smoothly. “I was merely making an attempt, I fear a vain attempt, to amuse you by giving you some information. It is”—the words dropped with icy, contemptuous indifference from his scarcely moving lips—“a matter of profound indifference to me whether you marry Lady Grace—or one of the maids in the kitchen!”
A fierce retort trembled on the tip of Lord Cecil’s tongue, but he closed his lips tightly, and, returning the courtly bow which the marquis at this moment accorded him, with a short inclination of the head, left the room. The marquis gently sank back into his chair with the placid and serene air of a man who has spent a remarkably pleasant quarter of an hour.
Outside, in the hall, Lord Cecil pulled himself up and drew a long breath, as a man does who has kept a tight hold upon himself for about as long as he can manage; then he paced up and down the full length of the hall—much to the concealed amazement of the groom and the footmen, one of whom stood ready to open the drawing-room door for him—and, at last, remembering that Lady Grace was waiting for him, greatly relieved the footman’s feelings by entering the room.