“I don't care a curse whether you do or not, provided your niece does.”
“Are you the fellow that has been abroad, and returned home lately?”
“I am the very fellow,” replied Woodward, with a ludicrous and good-humored emphasis upon the word fellow.
“There was a bonfire made for you on your return?”
“There was, my lord.”
“And there fell a shower of blood upon that occasion?”
“Not a doubt of it, my lord.”
“Well, you are a strange fellow altogether. I have not for a long time met a man so much after my own heart.”
“That is because our dispositions resemble each other. If I had the chance of a peerage, I would be as original as your lord-ship in the selection of my title; but I trust I shall be gratified in that, too; because, if I marry your niece, I will enter into public life, make myself not only a useful, but a famous man, and, of course, the title of Cockletown will be revived in my person, and will not perish with you. No, my lord, should I marry your niece, your title shall descend with your blood, and there is something to console you.”
“Come,” said the old peer, “shake hands. Have you a capacity for public business?”