“Who’s to stop us?” he demanded. “That’s one thing my father didn’t put into the damned Trust! I can marry anyone I please, and no one can say a word.”
“But they will,” said Hero bodingly. “You know they will, Sherry! Your Mama wishes you to make a Brilliant Match, and she will do everything in her power to prevent your throwing yourself away upon me. I have no fortune, you see.”
“I know that, but it don’t signify in the least. Once the Trust ends, I shall have plenty for the pair of us.”
“Lady Sheringham will not think so. And Cousin Jane would pack me off to Bath tomorrow if she knew!”
“Hang it, I don’t see that, Hero, dashed if I do! She’ll say it’s a devilish good match: she’s bound to!”
“That’s just it, Sherry: she would say it was far too good for me! She would be so angry! Because, you know, she does hope that perhaps you might take a liking to Cassy, or even Eudora.”
“Well, I shan’t. Never could abide the sight of either of them, or of Sophy, for that matter, and it’s not likely I shall change at my time of life. However, there’s a good deal in what you say, Hero, and if there’s one thing I detest more than another it’s a parcel of women arguing at me, and having the vapours every five minutes, which is what would happen, sure as check! And if your cousin did pack you off to Bath I should be obliged to go there to rescue you, and I can’t bear the place. There’s only one thing for it: we must go off without saying a word about it to anyone. Once the knot’s tied, and we can do that fast enough if I get a special licence, they won’t say anything — or, at any rate, if they do, it won’t be to us.”
“Won’t it?” Hero asked doubtfully.
“No, because for one thing there’d be no sense in it, and for another we can show them the door,” said the Viscount.
“You don’t think Cousin Jane will say that I am under age, and have it put at an end? People can, can’t they, Sherry?”