'I must write to my grandmother by this afternoon's post,' said Lesbia,
with a heavy sigh.
'Impossible. We have to be at the Ranelagh by four o'clock. Smithson
and some other men are to meet us there. I have promised to drive Mrs.
Mostyn down. You had better begin to dress.'
'But I ought to write to-day. I had better ask for this money at once,
and have done with it. Two thousand pounds! I feel as if I were a thief.
You say my grandmother is not a rich woman?'
'Not rich as the world goes nowadays. Nobody is rich now, except your
commercial magnates, like Smithson. Great peers, unless their money is
in London ground-rents, are great paupers. To own land is to be
destitute. I don't suppose two thousand pounds will break your
grandmother's bank; but of course it is a large sum to ask for at the
end of two months; especially as she sent you a good deal of money while
we were at Cannes. If you were engaged--about to make a really good
match--you could ask for the money as a matter of course; but as it is,
although you have been tremendously admired, from a practical point of
view you are a failure.
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