“And pray who is Mrs. Kirkland’s lover?”
“A Puritan baronet. One Denzil Warner.”
“There was a Warner killed at Hoptown Heath.”
“His son, sir. A fellow who believes in extempore prayer and republican government; and swears England was never so happy or prosperous as under Cromwell.”
“And the lady favours this psalm-singing rebel?”
“I know not. For all I have seen of the two she has been barely civil to him. That he adores her is obvious; and I know Lady Fareham’s heart is set upon the match.”
“Why did not Lady Fareham return the Countess’s visit?”
There was no need to ask what Countess.
“Be sure, sir, the husband was to blame, if there was want of respect for that lovely lady. I can answer for Lady Fareham’s right feeling in that matter.”
“The husband takes a leaf out of Hyde’s book, and forgets that what may be passed over in the Lord Chancellor, and a man of prodigious usefulness, is intolerable in a person of Fareham’s insignificance.”