CHAPTER III.
Concerning two Remarkable Persons who appeared in Wardlock Church.
Lady Alice carried her thin Roman nose some degrees higher; but she said—
"If I say anything disagreeable, it is not for the pleasure of giving you pain, Jekyl Marlowe; but I understand that you mean to have old General Lennox and his artful wife to stay at your house, and if so, I think it an arrangement that had better be dispensed with. I don't think her an eligible acquaintance for Beatrix, and you know very well she's not—and it is not a respectable or creditable kind of thing."
"Now, what d—d fool, I beg pardon—but who the plague has been filling your mind with those ridiculous stories—my dear little mamma? You know how ready I am to confess; you might at least; I tell you everything; and I do assure you I never admired her. She's good looking, I know; but so are fifty pictures and statues I've seen, that don't please me."
"Then it's true, the General and his wife are going on a visit to Marlowe?" insisted Lady Alice, drily.
"No, they are not. D—— me, I'm not thinking of the General and his wife, nor of any such d—d trumpery. I'd give something to know who the devil's taking these cursed liberties with my name."
"Pray, Jekyl Marlowe, command your language. It can't the least signify who tells me; but you see I do sometimes get a letter."
"Yes, and a precious letter too. Such a pack of lies did any human being ever hear fired off in a sentence before? I'm épris of Mrs. General Lennox. Thumper number one! She's a lady of—I beg pardon—easy virtue. Thumper number two! and I invite her and her husband down to Marlowe, to make love of course to her, and to fight the old General. Thumper number three!"