"No; but as her allowance for you ceases with your minority, you must, in fairness to her, either contribute to [{405}] the household income, or get a home of your own."
"I don't anticipate any difficulty about it."
"Merton Paddocks is to be let," continued William. "It is a nice little place, and suitable to you in many ways. If you let it slip, you may regret it. Your marrying is to be calculated on, and in that event your living with your mother might not be agreeable to all parties."
"I don't think of marrying."
"Oh, nonsense! every man's turn comes; and why should you escape?"
"As you escaped, perhaps." "Me!—one old bachelor in a family is enough in two generations; and my case may not be obstinate. I'm not actually too old."
"May I ask whom you think of elevating to the vicarage?" asked Robert, laughing; but there was a pause which, he could not imagine why, made him uncomfortable, before his cousin said:
"I have thought of Polly—do you forbid the banns?"
The room seemed turning round with Robert; but he swallowed a glass of wine hastily, and said, as carelessly as he could, "That child!"
"Child! I don't know—she's seventeen, and I'm thirty-two—the difference there was between your parents' ages when they married; and Polly is two years older than your mother was then."