She shrank from an opening so direct.
"Not altogether," she said.
"It is partly Peter."
"Yes," she admitted.
"I saw it coming, Mary. You are only a sister of the younger branch. You can marry for yourself. You are not worrying about that?"
His quiet accepting of Peter made it harder for Lady Mary to go on. Instinctively she felt that her brother would be against her when he knew the rest. She shut her eyes and rushed at her confession.
"Lord Wenderby," she said, "asked me to marry him six months ago."
"Wenderby?"
The surprise in his voice uttered the quick leap of his mind. He came towards her. "Tell me," he said, "there is more in this than a proposal of marriage. Am I right?"