I have told you that Mr Tregear is my brother's
friend, and that ought to be enough.'
Lord Popplecourt was a young man possessed of a certain amount of
ingenuity. It was said of him that he knew on which side his bread
was buttered, and that if you wished to take him in you must get
up early. After dinner, and during the night he pondered a good
deal on what he had heard. Lady Cantrip had told him there had
been a--dream. What was he to believe about that dream? Had he not
better avoid the error of putting too fine a point upon it, and
tell himself at once that a dream in this instance meant a--lover!
Lady Mary had already been troubled by a lover! He was disposed
to believe that young ladies often do have objectionable lovers,
and that things get themselves right afterwards. Young ladies can
be made to understand the beauty of coal mines almost as readily
as young gentlemen. There would be the two hundred thousand
pounds; and there was the girl, beautiful and well-born, and
thoroughly well-mannered. But what if this Tregear and the dream
were one and the same? If so, had he not received plenty of
evidence that the dream had not yet passed away? A remnant of
affection for the dream would not have been a fatal barrier, had
not the girl been so fierce with him in her defence of her dream.
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