“Her money—she has so much!—So much, that, in comparison, he is a mere pauper:—twenty millions against two hundred thousand.”
“If she be willing, I can’t see why he is shy?”
“He says it is all right for a poor girl to marry a rich man, but not for a poor man to marry a rich girl. His idea is, that the husband should be able to maintain his wife according to her condition. To marry else, he says, is giving hostages to fortune, and is derogatory to that mutual respect which should exist between them.”
“We all give hostages to fortune when we marry!” Miss Carrington exclaimed.
“Not all!” replied Macloud, meaningly.
She flushed slightly.
“What is it you want me to do?” she asked hastily—“or can I do anything?”
“You can,” he answered. “You can ask Miss Cavendish to visit you for a few days.” 251
“Can you, by any possibility, mean Elaine Cavendish?”
“That’s exactly who I do mean—do you know her?”