"But the men here are not all bad, are they?"
"Oh, no! No! I wouldn't have you think that. Some of them, I think most of them, are as good as you could get at home. But there are others. And Carteret is one of the others."
"Mrs. MacAllister does not know that."
"Perhaps not. But she has seen enough of the world to know the difference between a man like Sinclair and one like Carteret."
"I am afraid that it is the title. She told me that his father, the present lord, is an old man and cannot live long; and that his older brother, the present heir, is dying of consumption—as she expressed it, 'has only one lung.' So she thinks that Carteret is sure to succeed to the title soon."
"Yes; and in the meantime the two brothers love each other so that the heir will not hear of this prospective supplanter being nearer to him than China is to England. Esau and Jacob! And Mrs. MacAllister would give her daughter to that scavenger, and the MacAllister money to fix up the Carteret estates, just to have a title in the family! Gwen, I want to swear."
"Oh, Harry, you are shocking!"
"Can't help it, Gwen. I must swear."
"Well, Harry, if it will save you from injury——"
"It's damnable! ... Thanks, awfully, Gwen. I feel some better now."