Miss Perry took advantage of this gracious permission to turn to Lord Cheriton with a charmingly friendly smile upon her scarlet countenance.
“It is so dear of you, Lord Cheriton,” she said, “and if I were not going to marry Jim I would marry you. Perhaps Muffin——”
Aunt Caroline affronted the nerves of Ponto by rapping sharply with her stick upon the floor.
“You have said sufficient,” said she. “Dismiss the man Lascelles from your mind once and for all. You are going to marry Lord Cheriton. Is that quite clear?”
Apparently this was not quite so clear to Miss Perry as it was to Aunt Caroline. For that Featherbrain opened her eyes so widely that they seemed to acquire the color of violets, and a look of sheer perplexity settled upon her frank countenance.
“But if you don’t mind, dearest Aunt Caroline,” said she, “I p-r-r-romised to marry Jim.”
Aunt Caroline began to storm.
“Is the girl a dolt!” she cried. “Has she no brains at all! Girl, have the goodness to listen once more. Your father, your brothers, and your sisters are all poor as mice, are they not?”
“Yes, dearest Aunt Caroline,” said Miss Perry, quite simply.
“Very good. Now heed this carefully. By the terms of your marriage settlement, which I may say I have been able to arrange not without difficulty, you will become a countess with six thousand a year in your own right, with a house to live in, and your father or one of your brothers will have the reversion of a living worth eleven hundred a year which is in Lord Cheriton’s gift. Now have you the intelligence to comprehend all that I have said to you?”