The great lady stiffened.
‘I am obliged to ask you whether you intend to act on it at once. The admiral has gone; I am in some sort deputed as a guardian to her, and I warn you—very well, very well. In your own interests, it will be. If she is left there another two or three days, the name of the place will stick to her.’
‘She has baptized herself with it already, I imagine,’ said Fleetwood. ‘She will have Esslemont to live in.’
‘There will be more than one to speak as to that. You should know her.’
‘I do not know her.’
‘You married her.’
‘The circumstances are admitted.’
‘If I may hazard a guess, she is unlikely to come to terms without a previous interview. She is bent on meeting you.’
‘I am to be subjected to further annoyance, or she will take the name of the place she at present inhabits, and bombard me with it. Those are the terms.’
‘She has a brother living, I remind you.’