“Well, my dear, I think it very rash of you to encourage their intimacy,” he said; “Mr. Carlingford has no land, and even land is worth nothing now.”
Lady Chatham was rather horror-struck at this very unveiled way of stating the objection to a subject she had introduced so cautiously.
“Tom Carlingford is just as nice as he can be,” she replied, “and very well connected, and what investments and land have to do with the question, Chatham, I really don’t know.”
“But you were saying only the other day that you hoped Maud would marry well.”
“I have my only daughter’s real advantage at heart, and that only,” she replied with finality.
Lord Chatham overlooked the finality, and continued—
“Then did you only mean that you hoped she would marry a nice man, when you said you hoped she would marry well?”
“Of course it is an advantage to marry a man who can keep her in boots and gloves,” said Lady Chatham, stung into innocuous sarcasm.
“Oh, well, I dare say Tom Carlingford could do that, even if his father’s business smashed altogether. Mind you send the carriage back for me punctually, dear; I’ve got another meeting to go to after the House, and if it isn’t ready I shall have to take a cab, and the carriage perhaps will wait half an hour or more, and we shall be late for dinner.”