If he had been younger, less hardened, or less finished, Captain Palliser would have laughed outright. But he answered without self-revelation.
“Oh, I see. You were asking whether the family is a titled one. No; it is a good old name, quite old, in fact, but no title goes with the estate.”
“Who are the titled people about here?” Tembarom asked, quite unabashed.
“The Earl of Pevensy at Pevensy Park, the Duke of Stone at Stone Hover, Lord Hambrough at Doone. Doone is in the next county, but just over the border.”
“Have they all got daughters?”
Captain Palliser found it expedient to clear his throat before speaking.
“Lord Pevensy has daughters, so has the duke. Lord Hambrough has three sons.”
“How many daughters are there—in a bunch?” Mr. Temple Barholm suggested liberally.
There Captain Palliser felt it safe to allow himself to smile, as though taking it with a sense of humor.
“‘In a bunch’ is an awfully good way of putting it,” he said. “It happens to apply perhaps rather unfortunately well; both families are much poorer than they should be, and daughters must be provided for. Each has four. ‘In a bunch’ there are eight: Lady Alice, Lady Edith, Lady Ethel, and Lady Celia at Stone Hover; Lady Beatrice, Lady Gwynedd, Lady Honora, and Lady Gwendolen at Pevensy Park. And not a fortune among them, poor girls!”