Waving her large fan slowly to and fro, and eyeing Shafto closely over the top of it, she said:
'I hope, my dearest boy, that you will find your cousin Finella—the daughter of my dead darling Cosmo—a lovable kind of girl. But even were she not so—and all say she is—you must not feel a prejudice against her, because—because——'
'What, grandmother?'
'Because it is our warmest desire that you may marry her.'
'Why, haven't I money enough?' asked Shafto, with one of his dissembling smiles.
'Of course, as the heir of Fettercairn; but one is always the better to have more, and you must not feel——'
'What?' asked Shafto, with affected impatience.
'Please not to interrupt me thus. I mean that you must not be prejudiced against her as an expected parti.'
'Why should I?'
'One hears and reads so much of such things.'