“My cousin Archibald? Why, he never asked me to be Lady Corbin.”
“Thank the Lord.” There was a good deal more sincerity in this thanksgiving than might have been suspected.
“Do you think I would have been dazzled by his title and money?” asked Letty, offended.
“No, because you don’t know anything about either money or titles. You are a very clever girl, my dear, but you are very unsophisticated, so far. I believe, though, he would have to come down here among you quaint Virginia people to find any girl who wouldn’t take him. And the sinner is a deuced fine fellow—that I must admit.”
“I did want the honor and glory of refusing him,” Letty admitted, candidly, “but he never gave me the chance, more’s the pity.”
Farebrother burst into a ringing laugh. Letty’s ideas on the subject of love and courtship had a unique and childish candor which delighted a man who knew as much about this ridiculous old planet as Farebrother.
Their lovemaking was cut short by the Colonel’s and Miss Jemima’s entrance. Colonel Corbin at once engaged Farebrother in a red-hot political discussion. The Colonel was a believer in states’ rights to the point of not believing in a central government at all, and Letty ably assisted him by ready references to the Constitution of the United States. But Farebrother was a match for them both, and argued that Washington, Hamilton, and a great many of the fathers wanted a central government a great deal stronger than their successors of to-day are prepared to accept. The Colonel, though, was rather disgusted to observe that Letty and Farebrother were half laughing while they argued and quarrelled, and that Letty wore a very sweet smile when once or twice the Colonel was unhorsed in the discussion. From politics they fell into talk about Mr. Romaine, and in the midst of it a tap came at the door, and Madame de Fonblanque entered.
“We were again discussing our eccentric friend Romaine, Madame,” said the Colonel, anxious lest Madame de Fonblanque should suppose that her arrival was an interruption. “Mr. Farebrother seems to take a more indulgent view of him than any of us do.”
“For my part,” answered Madame de Fonblanque, with a gesture of aversion, “I do not hesitate to say that I dislike Mr. Romaine very much. I cannot deny that he is a gentleman—”
“Technically, my dear madam—technically—”