"
"I am glad of that, kinsman," said the Marquis, "for I am ashamed to
tell you half what she said. It is enough--her mind is made up, and the
mistress of a first-rate boarding-school could not have rejected
with more haughty indifference the suit of a half-pay Irish officer,
beseeching permission to wait upon the heiress of a West India planter,
than Lady Ashton spurned every proposal of mediation which it could at
all become me to offer in behalf of you, my good kinsman. I cannot guess
what she means. A more honourable connexion she could not form, that's
certain. As for money and land, that used to be her husband's business
rather than hers; I really think she hates you for having the rank
which her husband has not, and perhaps for not having the lands that her
goodman has. But I should only vex you to say more about it--here we are
at the change-house."
The Master of Ravenswood paused as he entered the cottage, which reeked
through all its crevices, and they were not few, from the exertions of
the Marquis's travelling-cooks to supply good cheer, and spread, as it
were, a table in the wilderness.
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