“Yes, I know what you mean. Proceed.”
“Well, I feel very much relieved. You are a decent sort, Rust—a deucedly decent sort. Now I am very fond of Lady Margaret. I have learned to be, you know. My uncle requires me to marry her, don’t you see, or be cut off with a brass farthing. So I have learned to be deucedly fond of her, you know.”
“Very reasonable and like a man,” said Adam.
“Yes, I fancy so myself. I am coming to the point.”
“Then there is a point?”
“Oh dear me, yes. You see, as you don’t care for Lady Margaret, that way, and I do——”
“Why then, to be sure, take her and let me give you my blessing,” Rust interrupted. “I will do this with all my heart.”
“Thanks, old chap, but that is not quite the point,” Suffle assured him. “The fact of the matter is, she rather likes you, Rust, you know. I’m bound to admit she does, though God knows why, and we are two sensible men, you know, and that is what I wanted to talk about.”
“You do me too great an honor,” Adam assured him. “But what would you have me do?”
“Why—that’s just the point. Of course I wouldn’t like to ask you to clear out of the country——”