'I wish Finella were not so beastly rich!' he exclaimed.
'Do not use such shocking terms, Shafto! But why?'
'It makes me look like a fortune-hunter, being after her.'
'"After her"? Another vulgarism—impossible—you—you—the heir of Fettercairn!'
'Well, it gives one no credit for disinterested affection,' said this plausible young gentleman.
We have said that Lady Fettercairn was irrepressible in seeking to control Finella.
'How quiet and abstracted you seem! Why don't you entertain our friends?' said she, as the girl drew near her in an angle of the terrace, where they were alone.
'I am thinking, grandmamma,' said Finella wearily.
'You seem to be for ever thinking, child; and I wonder what it can all be about.'
'I don't believe, grandmamma, it would interest you,' said Finella, a little defiantly.