'I should be very sorry if poor Jack should come to grief.
But still, if Lesbia likes him--which I think she does--we ought to be
able to talk over the dowager.'
'Never,' cried Mary. 'Grandmother would never give way. You have no idea
how ambitious she is. Why, once when Lesbia was in a poetical mood, and
said she would marry the man she liked best in the world, if he were a
pauper, her ladyship flew into a terrible passion, and told her she
would renounce her, that she would curse her, if she were to marry
beneath her, or marry without her grandmother's consent.'
'Hard lines for Hammond,' said Maulevrier, rather lightly. 'Then I
suppose we must give up the idea of a match between him and Lesbia.'
'You ought not to have brought him here,' retorted Mary. 'You had better
invent some plan for sending him away. If he stay it will be only to
break his heart.'
'Dear child, men's hearts do not break so easily. I have fancied that
mine was broken more than once in my life, yet it is sound enough, I
assure you.'
'Oh!' sighed Mary, 'but you are not like him; wounds do not go so deep
with you.
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