You forget yourself, Lady
Glencora."
"Ask any one. It is not that I despise you. If I did, would I offer
you my hand in friendship? But an old man, over seventy, carrying the
weight and burden of such rank as his, will degrade himself in the
eyes of his fellows, if he marries a young woman without rank, let
her be ever so clever, ever so beautiful. A Duke of Omnium may not do
as he pleases, as may another man."
"It may be well, Lady Glencora, for other dukes, and for the
daughters and heirs and cousins of other dukes, that his Grace should
try that question. I will, if you wish it, argue this matter with you
on many points, but I will not allow you to say that I should degrade
any man whom I might marry. My name is as unstained as your own."
"I meant nothing of that," said Lady Glencora.
"For him;--I certainly would not willingly injure him. Who wishes
to injure a friend? And, in truth, I have so little to gain, that
the temptation to do him an injury, if I thought it one, is not
strong. For your little boy, Lady Glencora, I think your fears are
premature." As she said this, there came a smile over her face, which
threatened to break from control and almost become laughter. "But, if
you will allow me to say so, my mind will not be turned against this
marriage half so strongly by any arguments you can use as by those
which I can adduce myself.
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