"I've heard Nevil," Robert said. "I doubt if anyone could improve on Nevil's version of the subject."
"Is the engagement definitely broken, then?" Marion asked.
"Definitely. Aunt Lin has hopes of the eldest Whittaker girl. She is a niece of Lady Mountleven, and a grand-daughter of Karr's Krisps."
Marion laughed with him. "Is she nice, the Whittaker girl?" she asked.
"Yes. Fair, pretty, well-brought-up, musical but doesn't sing."
"I should like Nevil to get a nice wife. All he needs is some permanent interest of his own. A focus for his energies and his emotions."
"At the moment the focus for both is The Franchise."
"I know. He has been a dear to us. Well, I suppose it is time that we were going. If anyone had told me last week that I should be leaving The Franchise to go to a triumph at Norton I wouldn't have believed it. Poor Stanley can sleep in his own bed from now on, instead of guarding a couple of hags in a lonely house."
"Isn't he sleeping here tonight?" Robert asked.
"No. Why should he?"