“She wasn’t.”

“But you’ve just told me—”

“That I said in the letter you took so much trouble to lose that I expected to marry the young woman passing under the name of Miss Wainwright.”

“Sir!”

“That I expected—”

“Really, I am not deaf, Mr. Collins.”

“—expected to marry her, just as soon as she was willing.”

“Oh, she is to be given a voice in the matter, is she?”

“Ce’tainly, ma’am.”

“And when?”