‘I call that stealing a girl’s money, Lady Carbury.’

‘Oh, Roger, how hard you are!’

‘A man must be hard or soft,—­which is best?’

’With women I think that a little softness has the most effect.  I want to make you understand this about the Melmottes.  It stands to reason that the girl will not marry Felix unless she loves him.’

‘But does he love her?’

’Why should he not?  Is a girl to be debarred from being loved because she has money?  Of course she looks to be married, and why should she not have Felix if she likes him best?  Cannot you sympathise with my anxiety so to place him that he shall not be a disgrace to the name and to the family?&rsquo...