“I should think it extremely unlikely, ma’am. Let the boy alone. Damme, he must cut his milk teeth sometime!”
Lady Mablethorpe flushed angrily. “It is all very well for you to stand there, talking in that odious way, as though you did not care a fig, but—”
“I’m only responsible for his fortune,” he said.
“I might have known you would have come here only to be disagreeable! Wash your hands of my poor boy by all means: I’m sure it’s only what I expected. But don’t blame me if he contracts the most shocking misalliance!”
“Who is the girl?” asked Mr Ravenscar.
“A creature—oh, a hussy—out of a gaming-house!”
“What?” demanded Ravenscar incredulously.
“I thought you would not be quite so cool when you heard the full sum of it!” said her ladyship, with a certain morbid satisfaction. “I was never so appalled in my life as when I heard of it! I went immediately to your house. Something must be done, Max!”
He shrugged. “Oh, let him amuse himself! It don’t signify. She may cost him less than an opera-dancer.”
“She will cost him a great deal more!” said her ladyship tartly. “He means to marry the creature!”