“What of Lady Ashton, my lord?” said Ravenswood; “let me know the issue of this extraordinary conference:  I can bear it.”

“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.

“My Lord Marquis,” said Ravenswood, “I already mentioned that accident has put your lordship in possession of a secret which, with my consent, should have remained one even to you, my kinsman, for some time.  Since the secret was to part from my own custody, and that of the only person besides who was interested in it, I am not sorry it should have reached your lordship’s ears, as being fully aware that you are my noble kinsman and friend.”

“You may believe it is safely lodged with me, Master of Ravenswood,” said the Marquis; “but I should like well to hear you say that you renounced the idea of an alliance which you can hardly pursue without a certain degree of degradation.”

“Of that, my lord, I shall judge,” answered Ravenswood, “and I hope with delicacy as sensitive as any of my friends.  But I have no engagement with Sir William and Lady Ashton.  It is with Miss Ashton alone that I have entered upon the subject, and my conduct in the matter shall be entirely ruled by hers.  If she continues to prefer me in my poverty to the wealthier suitors whom her friends recommend, I may well make some sacrifice to her sincere affection:  I may well surrender to her the less tangible and less palpable advantages of birth, and the deep-rooted prejudices of family hatred.  If Miss Lucy Ashton should change her mind on a subject of such delicacy, I trust my friends will be silent on my disappointment, and I shall know how to make my enemies so.”