"I don't know—you see, it just sets Tom free to attend to her. Look at him—picking those purple irises—as if iris did not grow anywhere else! And now elderberry blossoms! And he will give her lessons in botany, I shouldn't wonder. O, Tom's a goose!"
"That disease is helpless," said Lenox, laughing again.
"But George, it is madness!"
Mr. Lenox's laugh rang out heartily at this. His sovereign mistress was not altogether pleased.
"I do certainly consider—and so do you,—I do certainly consider unequal marriages to be a great misfortune to all concerned."
"Certainly—inequalities that cannot be made up. For instance, too tall and too short do not match well together. Or for the lady to be rich and the man to be poor; that is perilous."
"Nonsense, George! don't be ridiculous! Height is nothing, and money is nothing; but family—and breeding—and habits—"
"What is her family?" asked Mr. Lenox, pursing up his lips as if for a whistle.
"No family at all. Just country people, living at Shampuashuh."
"Don't you know, the English middle class is the finest in the world?"