“Your tone and manner, my good friend, are no doubt provoked by the report in the newspaper of this morning. In justice to you, I refuse to believe the report.” So Mrs. Newsham adopted her friend’s suggestion.
“You kindness is thrown away, Elizabeth. The report is true.”
“Matilda, you shock me!”
“Why?”
“At your age!”
“If he doesn’t object to my age, what does it matter to you?”
“Don’t speak of that man!”
“Why not?”
“He is young enough to be your son; and he is marrying you—impudently, undisguisedly marrying you—for your money!”
“And I am marrying him—impudently, undisguisedly marrying him—for his rank.”