"I have just posted a letter resigning her hand."
"That was a very unwise step, I think; it appears to me to be your only chance. I should make haste to withdraw that letter."
"But I could not marry Miss Kingston, even if she were willing."
"Another complication. I knew you had a talent for getting into scrapes."
"No, it would be a mockery to pretend that I have any feeling but that of friendship for Kate. She is much too good for me. The fact is, Jim, I am over head and ears in love with old Murray's wife."
"And not ashamed to own it?"
"If you knew our histories you would pity us. We are separated by a cruel wrong."
"Oh, I daresay! Disappointment in early life, I suppose; the miscarriage of a letter, or she found you making love to another young lady who afterwards turned out to be your own sister, and in a fit of jealousy made haste to marry a man old enough to be her father."
"Her grandfather."