Mona blushes painfully.
"Well, no; but that is pure Irish," says Geoffrey, unmoved. Mona, with lowered head, turns her wedding-ring round and round upon her finger, and repents bitterly that little slip of hers when talking with the duchess last night.
"If I must ask Edith Carson, I shall feel I am doing something against my will," says Lady Rodney.
"We have all to do that at times," says Sir Nicholas. "And there is another person, mother, I shall be glad if you will send a card to."
"Certainly dear. Who is it?"
"Paul Rodney," replies he, very distinctly.
"Nicholas!" cries his mother, faintly: "this is too much!"
"Nevertheless, to oblige me," entreats he, hastily.
"But this is morbid,—a foolish pride," protests she, passionately, while all the others are struck dumb at this suggestion from Nicholas. Is his brain failing? Is his intellect growing weak, that he should propose such a thing? Even Doatie, who as a rule supports Nicholas through evil report and good, sits silent and aghast at his proposition.
"What has he done that he should be excluded?" demands Nicholas, a little excitedly. "If he can prove a first right to claim this property, is that a crime? He is our cousin: why should we be the only people in the whole countryside to treat him with contempt? He has committed no violation of the law, no vile sin has been laid to his charge beyond this fatal one of wanting his own—and—and——"