The cool Englishman asked: "In what way?"
"In this way, to be sure! You have reminded me that I can provide for Miss Henley—and the sooner the better. There's our friend the doctor down-stairs, ready to be my reference. Don't you see it?"
Obstacles that might prevent the marriage Mountjoy was ready enough to see. Facilities that might hasten the marriage found his mind hard of access to new impressions.
"Are you speaking seriously?" he said.
The Irishman's irritable temper began to show itself again.
"Why do you doubt it?" he asked.
"I fail to understand you," Mountjoy replied.
Never—as events were yet to prove—had words of such serious import fallen from Lord Harry's lips as the words that he spoke next.
"Clear your mind of jealousy," he said, "and you will understand me well enough. I agree with you that I am bound to provide for my widow—and I mean to do it by insuring my life."