"Hem!" said the earl, and he shifted in his chair to get more comfortable. "There is one little difficulty about Ethel which you seem to forget; perhaps you do not know it."
"What is that?" asked the countess.
"That her private fortune has long since been swallowed up."
Lady Lackland looked grave.
"And if she marries, her husband will want it—at least, ask for it. If he should, where is it to come from?"
He put the question quite calmly, and Lady Lackland sighed.
"Nobody was ever so poor as we are——"
"Or spent more money," said the earl, comfortably. "Ethel is a difficult question; a big marriage would bring questions, questions would bring awkward answers. I have spent her fortune, and I cannot replace it."
At that moment, while the countess sat with a look of annoyance and distress, silent and dismayed, a servant entered with a card.