“So far as I do see,” said Culduff, slowly: “the first objection is my want of fortune, the second, my want of a wife?”
“Exactly so.”
“Well, my Lord, I am able to meet each of these obstacles; my agent has just discovered coal on one of my Irish estates, and I am now in town to make arrangements on a large scale to develop the source of wealth. As to the second disability, I shall pledge myself to present the Viscountess Culduff at the next drawing-room.”
“Married already?”
“No, but I may be within a few weeks. In fact, I mean to place myself in such a position, that no one holding your office can pass me over by a pretext, or affect to ignore my claim by affirming that I labor under a disability.”
“This sounds like menace, does it not?” said the other as he threw his cigar impatiently from him.
“A mere protocol, my Lord, to denote intention.”
“Well, I'll submit your name. I'll go further,—I'll support it. Don't leave town for a day or two. Call on Beadlesworth and see Repsley; tell him what you 've said to me. If you could promise it was one of his old maiden sisters that you thought of making Lady Culduff, the thing could be clenched at once. But I take it you have other views?”
“I have other views,” said he, gravely.
“I'm not indiscreet, and I shall not ask you more on that head. By the way, is n't your leave up, or nearly up?”