The Reverend Hugh shrugged his broad shoulders, and replied repressively: “The whole of the affair seems to me to be most improper. If I make poor Kitty an offer, it will be from compassion, and in the belief that her upbringing and character are such as must make her a suitable wife for a man in orders.”

“Humbug!” retorted Lord Biddenden. “If Uncle Matthew makes the girl his heiress, she will inherit, I daresay, as much as twenty thousand pounds a year! He cannot have spent a tithe of his fortune since he built this place, and when one considers how it must have accumulated—My dear Hugh, I do beg of you to use a little address! If I were a single man—! But, there! It does not do to be repining, and I am sure I am not the man to be grudging a fortune to either of my brothers!”

“We have been at Arnside close upon twenty-four hours,” said Hugh, “and my great-uncle has not yet made known to us his intentions.”

“We know very well what they are,” replied Lord Biddenden irritably. “And if you do not guess why he has not yet spoken, you are a bigger fool than I take you for! Of course he hoped that Jack would come to Arnside! And Freddy, too,” he added perfunctorily. “Not that Freddy signifies a whit more than Dolphinton here, but I daresay the old man would wish him not to be excluded. No, no, it is Jack’s absence which has made him hold his tongue! And I must say, Hugh, I never looked for that, and must hold it to be a piece of astonishing good fortune! Depend upon it, had the opportunity offered, the girl must have chosen him!”

“I do not know why you should say so,” replied the Rector stiffly. “Indeed, I am at a loss to understand why you should be so anxious to have me offer for a lady whom you apparently hold in such poor esteem! If I did not believe her to be a well-brought-up young woman to whom such persons as my cousin Jack must be repugnant—”

“Yes, well, that is more of your humbug!” interrupted his lordship. “You may be a handsome fellow, Hugh, but you are not an out-and-outer, like Jack!”