"Oh, well—of course—if it's like that," said the duke in a tone of awkward apology.
Pollyooly said nothing for a while; she walked on with knitted brow. Then she said:
"And anyhow when the Lump gets bigger, I shall want a lot of money. There'll be his clothes, and his schooling. I don't want him to go to a board school—not in London. Such children go there—Aunt Hannah said so, and so does Mrs. Brown. But there must be schools where they wouldn't charge very much."
"Oh—ah—of course, you'll want money for that," said the duke heavily.
Pollyooly gave a little skip as of one removing an unpleasant matter from her mind, and said cheerfully:
"And anyhow I should have to go on the stage. Ronald and I couldn't get married if I didn't."
"I keep telling you that he's going to marry Marion," said the duke very firmly indeed.
His insistence on this fact did not seem to impair Pollyooly's cheerful serenity, for after a thoughtful pause she skipped again and said:
"Oh, well: if I'm actually on the stage, I expect it would be all right. There must be other heirs of peers."
The duke looked down on her and said bitterly: