"The rich people! The man called upon me the other day, and talked conundrums. What have you got to do with them?"
"They are my cousins. I am a great deal with them just now."
"Oh! Is that what makes you so infernally independent?"
"Shall I become the heiress of millions, or shall I be hidden away in a box by a husband who is ashamed of his wife? I have this choice."
"Oh! Their heiress! If they will do that! But have you told them of your engagement?"
"I am not engaged."
"Don't be silly, Molly. How can you refuse what I offer you? Why did the man call on me, then?"
"Did he call? What did he tell you?"
"He talked about some tremendous secret—talked about my mother. I thought he meant you and the engagement. Then he told me—which was a most curious thing—that if I followed the wishes of my mother, I should have as much money as I want. Wishes of my mother! Why, if I told her that I was engaged to a lady named Pennefather, she would ask what your county was, and with whom you were connected, and where your people's property might lie. And if I said—you know—why, it would be a case of cutting me off with a shilling. Yet that respectable Dives went on talking about my mother's wishes."
"Perhaps you did not understand him. At all events, he could not mean my engagement, because I am not engaged. This is the tenth time that I have reminded you of that fact, Sir Humphrey."