"And she will soon——"
"I tell you never!" he replied hotly.
Lady Vernon laughed; a light, incredulous sort of laugh, which only tended to enstrange them farther still.
"There are considerations of which you appear to be ignorant, sir," she replied, "but I am not willing to wound your feelings."
"That may be, and yet, perchance, there may be somewhat to be said on the other side," he calmly rejoined.
Lady Vernon fixed her eyes upon him, astounded at his presumption, but instead of crushing him under an avalanche of her wrath, she restrained herself, and broke into another superficial burst of laughter.
"Pooh," she said, "you are simply an esquire, and he is a knight."
"And he a knight," echoed Dorothy's lover, scornfully. "As if he were aught the better for that."
"A knight is a knight," replied the lady stiffly; "and he is the son of an earl."
"And I, by the favour of fortune, am the nephew of an earl; and, moreover, Dorothy and I have plighted our troth together."