He smiled. “Let us say rather than I should like very much to know whether he is dead, my dear.”
She repressed the impulse to throw off his hand, and said in a thoughtful voice: “Yes, I suppose you want to be Lord Lavenham. It is very natural.”
He shrugged. “I do not set great store by it, but I should be glad of the title if it could win me the one thing I want.”
This was too much for Eustacie, and she did pull her hand away, exclaiming: “ Voyons, do you think I marry just for a title, me?”
“Oh no, no, no!” he said, smiling. “You would undoubtedly marry for love were it possible, but you have said yourself that your situation is awkward, and, alas, I know that you are not in love with me. I am offering a marriage of expediency, and when one is debarred from a love-match, dear cousin, it is time to give weight to material considerations.”
“True, very true!” she said. “And you have given weight to them, n’est-ce pas? I am an heiress, as you reminded me yesterday.”
“You are also enchanting,” he said, with unwonted feeling.
“ Merci du compliment! I regret infinitely that I do not find you enchanting, too.”
“Ah, you are in love with romance!” he replied. “You imagine to yourself some hero of adventure, but it is a sad truth that in these humdrum days such people no longer exist.”
“You know nothing of the matter: they do exist!” said Eustacie hotly.