‘I certainly shan’t offend in that way.’

‘And you won’t be a Radical?’

‘No, not a Radical.’

’I mean a man to follow Beales and Bright, a republican, a putter-down of the Church, a hater of the Throne.  You won’t take up that line, will you, Brooke?’

’It isn’t my way at present, Aunt Stanbury.  But a man shouldn’t promise.’

’Ah me!  It makes me sad when I think what the country is coming to.  I’m told there are scores of members of Parliament who don’t pronounce their h’s.  When I was young, a member of Parliament used to be a gentleman and they’ve taken to ordaining all manner of people.  It used to be the case that when you met a clergyman you met a gentleman.  By-the-bye, Brooke, what do you think of Mr Gibson?’

‘Mr Gibson!  To tell the truth, I haven’t thought much about him yet.’

’But you must think about him.  Perhaps you haven’t thought about my niece, Dolly Stanbury?’

‘I think she’s an uncommonly nice girl.’

’She’s not to be nice for you, young man.  She’s to be married to Mr Gibson.’

‘Are they engaged?’

’Well, no; but I intend that they shall be.  You won’t begrudge that I should give my little savings to one of my own name?’

’You don’t know me, Aunt Stanbury, if you think that I should begrudge anything that you might do with your money.’

’Dolly has been here a month or two.  I think it’s three months since she came, and I do like her.  She’s soft and womanly, and hasn’t taken up those vile, filthy habits which almost all the girls have adopted.  Have you seen those Frenches with the things they have on their heads?’

‘I was speaking to them yesterday.’

’Nasty sluts!  You can see the grease on their foreheads when they try to make their hair go back in the dirty French fashion.  Dolly is not like that is she?’

‘She is not in the least like either of the Miss Frenches.’

‘And now I want her to become Mrs Gibson.  He is quite taken.’

‘Is he?’

’Oh dear, yes.  Didn’t you see him the other night at dinner and afterwards?  Of course he knows that I can give her a little bit of money, which always goes for something, Brooke.  And I do think it would be such a nice thing for Dolly.’

‘And what does Dolly think about it?’

’There’s the difficulty.  She likes him well enough; I’m sure of that.  And she has no stuck-up ideas about herself.  She isn’t one of those who think that almost nothing is good enough for them.  But—­’

‘She has an objection.’

’I don’t know what it is.  I sometimes think she is so bashful and modest she doesn’t like to talk of being married even to an old woman like me.’

‘Dear me!  That’s not the way of the age is it, Aunt Stanbury?’

’It’s coming to that, Brooke, that the girls will ask the men soon.  Yes and that they won’t take a refusal either.  I do believe that Camilla French did ask Mr Gibson.’