'On your side of the county,' said Mrs. Gould, as soon as the door was closed, 'there is our brace of baronets, as they are called. But poor Sir Richard—I am afraid he is a bad case—and yet he never took to drink until he was five-and-thirty; and as for Sir Charles—of course there are great advantages, he has a very fine property; but still many girls might—and I can quite understand their not liking to marry him.'
'Why, Mrs. Gould, what is wrong with him?' Alice asked innocently.
'Don't you know?' said May, winking. 'Haven't you heard? But I forgot, he isn't your side of the county. He's married already; at least, so they say.'
'It is very sad, very sad, indeed,' murmured Mrs. Gould; 'he'd have been a great match.'
'And to whom is he married?' said Alice, whose curiosity was awakened by the air of mystery with which the baronet was surrounded.
'Well, he's not exactly married,' replied May, laughing; 'but he has a large family.'
'May, I will not allow it; it is very wrong of you, indeed, to talk like that—'
'Now, mother dear, don't get into a passion; where's the harm? The whole
country knows it; Violet was talking of it to me only the other day.
There isn't a man within a mile of us, so we needn't be on our P's and
Q's.'
'And who is the mother of all these children?' Alice asked.
'A country-woman with whom he lives,' said May. 'Just fancy marrying a man with a little dirty crowd of illegitimate children running about the stable-yard!'