"You have no fancy for him, then?" and the old lady pinched the velvet cheek of the earnest girl.
"Of course, I have," answered Dorothy, with amusing simplicity. "If I did not care for him, I should have no cause to be here."
Mrs. Barford laughed.
"Now tell me, child, what were Lawrence Rushmere's principal objections to such a suitable match for his son?"
In spite of the character bestowed upon her by her old friend, Mrs. Barford dearly loved a bit of gossip. She had been confined to the house a month, and there had been, as a natural consequence, a great dearth of news.
"He wanted Gilly to marry Miss Watling. She has money and land. I have none."
"Marry Nancy Watling!" cried the invalid, rubbing her hands together, in a sort of ecstacy. "Ugly, ill-tempered old Nance—well, that's a capital joke. Lawrence must be in his dotage. Does he think that he can force a handsome jolly young bachelor, like his son Gilbert, to marry the like o' her? Why the woman is old enough, Dolly, to be your mother—and what said Nance?"
"I think she wished it very much."
"No doubt she did."
"She offered her place to him to farm on shares, and said that she wanted a smart young man to take charge of her affairs. It was his refusal that made all the trouble."