‘I have not even been introduced.’
‘Well! come on at once.’
‘I cannot.’
‘Are you mad?’
‘Worse than mad. Where is her father?’
‘Who cares?’
‘I do. In a word, my dear Lucy, her father is that guardian whom I have perhaps mentioned to you, and to whom I have behaved so delicately.’
‘Why! I thought your guardian was an old curmudgeon.’
‘What does that signify, with such a daughter!’
‘Oh! here is some mistake. This is the only child of Dacre of Castle Dacre, a most delightful fellow; one of the first fellows in the county; I was introduced to him to-day on the course. I thought you knew them. You were admiring his outriders to-day, the green and silver.’