'That is more than I can tell you—he is rather a riddle to me; but the girl is decidedly more than pretty, and very good style, too.'
'And hence the more dangerous. I must speak with Shafto on this subject seriously, or——'
'What then?'
'Get rid of her.'
'If we fail in marrying Shafto to Finella, who can say whom he may marry, as his instincts seem somewhat low, and after we are gone there may be a whole clan of low and sordid prodigals here in Craigengowan.'
'And Radicals!' suggested Lady Fettercairn.
'Desecrating the spots rendered almost sacred by association with a great and famous past,' said Lord Fettercairn loftily.
What this great and famous 'past' was, he could scarcely have told. It was not connected with his own mushroom line, whatever it might have been with the former lords of Craigengowan, whose guests had at times been Kings of Scotland and Princes of France and Spain.
'Finella is young, and does not know her own heart,' he resumed; 'besides, I believe it is enough generally to recommend a girl to marry a certain man, for her to set her face against him unreasoningly. But I think—and hope—that our Finella is different from the common run of girls.'
'Not in contriving, perhaps, to fall in love with the wrong man.'