“But I am,” said his lordship calmly.
“Rule, have you gone mad? You told me positively you had offered for Elizabeth!”
“My shocking memory for names!” mourned his lordship.
Lady Louisa brought her open hand down on the table. “Nonsense!” she said. “Your memory’s as good as mine!”
“My dear, I should not like to think that,” said the Earl. “Your memory is sometimes too good.”
“Oh!” said the lady critically surveying him. “Well, you had best make a clean breast of it. Do you really mean to marry that child?”
“Well, she certainly means to marry me,” said his lordship.
“What?” gasped Lady Louisa.
“You see,” explained the Earl, resuming his seat, “though it ought to be Charlotte, she has no mind to make such a sacrifice, even for Elizabeth’s sake.”
“Either you are out of your senses, or I am!” declared Lady Louisa with resignation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and how you can mean to marry Horatia, who must be still in the schoolroom, for I’m sure I have never clapped eyes on her—in place of that divinely beautiful Elizabeth—”