'It won't matter much if they do; there aren't a dozen worth two thousand a year each.'
'No? You are joking, mamma. And the Marquis?'
'That's a secret, dear.'
'Then you don't think he'll propose to me after all; and I gave up
Edward—Captain Hibbert.'
'I thought you had forgotten that horrid man's name. I didn't say, dear, that the Marquis wouldn't propose to you—of course he will. But we must leave Dublin to-morrow—I have serious reasons.'
'Oh, mamma, I didn't think you were so cruel, to go back to that hateful place, where everybody talks of rents, and that odious Land League.'
'Now, I will not allow my darling to cry like that,' exclaimed Mrs. Barton, and she threw her arms round the girl's shoulders. 'I didn't say that there wouldn't be a man within seven miles. On the contrary, there will be one very charming man indeed.'
'What do you mean, mamma?'
'That's a secret—that's a secret.'
Alice was told that she had better come home early that afternoon, so that she might have plenty of time to pack her own things and help her sister with hers; and it seemed to her unbelievable that she was at last leaving that hateful little varnished floor, complimenting old beaux and young A.D.C.'s.