“Yes, you are good enough for me!” said Dolphinton. “I won’t let you say you ain’t. Won’t let anyone say it!”
“That’s right, Dolph!” said Kitty approvingly.
Emboldened by this encouragement, his lordship went further. “I won’t let Freddy say it, and I like Freddy. Like him better than Hugh. If Hugh says it, I’ll draw his cork. Do you think I should do that, Kitty?”
“Well, I don’t precisely understand what it means, Dolph, but I daresay it would be an excellent thing to do.”
“Lord, my dear, it don’t matter to me what anyone says of me!” said Miss Plymstock. “Let ’em say what they choose, for it won’t vex us. Don’t you start picking a quarrel with the Reverend! He’s bound to think you’re marrying beneath you, for I can see he’s a proud kind of a man; but maybe, if he likes to come and visit us in Ireland, he’ll own he was mistaken.”
Dolphinton’s face brightened. “I should like Hugh to visit us. Like Kitty to visit us. Like Freddy to visit us too. I shall show them my horses.”
Kitty took advantage of this interlude to pull the Rector over to the window, and to say to him in an urgent under’ voice: “Hugh, upon my word I promise you that you cannot do Dolph a greater service than to marry him to Hannah! She is the kindest, most practical creature! She means to take him to Ireland, and let him breed horses, so that he may be perfectly happy and busy. You must own it would be the very thing for him!”
“Certainly, I have always been an advocate for his living quietly in the country. It is noticeable that whenever he has been staying here with me he is perfectly rational. I do not say that his intellect is strong, but he is by no means an imbecile.”
“Indeed, he is not! But are you aware, Hugh, that his Mama threatens to have him locked up?”
He cast a quick glance over his shoulder, but Dolphinton was engaged in enumerating to Miss Plymstock the various attractions of his Irish house. “You must be mistaken! She could not do such a thing. It is quite unnecessary.”