'For shame! That is not fair. There is nothing coarse about her—only rustic and piquante.'
'Piquante she is, I hear—with her tongue.'
'Do you know her father?'
'Holwood,' replied Gorges. 'Can't say I do—he is or has been in the Foreign Office. Eminently fitted for his post, I should say.'
'I hear he has come in for money, through the death of an aunt.'
'It is a deuced shame that some men have all the luck in this world and some none. Why should he come in for money and a beautiful daughter? By Gad! Look at my three rose-buds! Old and cankered every one. I can't dispose of them, because I cannot, like the Pope, offer my roses of gold.'
'I am like Henry IV. of Germany. Thank God I have none to dispose of. I find it difficult enough to dispose of myself in an easy-chair.'
Jane but partially understood what was said. The allusions escaped her altogether.
Turning to the girl who had accompanied her, she whispered: 'I shall never know her—never in the dress she will be wearing.'