'Yes, she should look for that which a poor girl seldom or never has offered her.'
'And what is that?'
'A title.'
'In fact, in any way or every way to sell herself to the highest bidder. Oh, what a selfish code!' exclaimed the girl, with great bitterness of heart. 'Did the Cheynes of Essilmont always do this?'
'They of old were not as we are now.'
'What?'
'Beggars!' replied her father, with equal bitterness of heart, for his was naturally a proud one; 'but, as Lever says, "the world makes us many things we never meant to be."'
'Do you forget, papa, that marriage is a sacrament, and that without a full and perfect consent it is in reality no marriage at all, and should not be binding, even though the blessing were given by the Archbishop of Canterbury.'
'What do you mean, Alison?' asked her father, surprised alike by her tone and this theory.
'Simply what I say.'