"What do you mean to do with Ned?" he asked.
"I hope," was the answer, "to have him married before the year is out."
"To the widow?"
"The widow?" Sir William raised his eyebrows.
"Mrs. Lovell, I mean."
"What gives you that idea?"
"Why, Ned has made her an offer. Don't you know that?"
"I know nothing of the sort."
"And don't believe it? He has. He's only waiting now, over there in Paris, to get comfortably out of a scrape—you remember what I told you at Fairly—and then Mrs. Lovell's going to have him—as he thinks; but, by George, it strikes me this major you've got here, knows how to follow petticoats and get in his harvest in the enemy's absence."
"I think you're quite under a delusion, in both respects," observed Sir
William.