"Stop her? Warn her?" He laughed again. "I'm not
engaged to be married to the Countess Olenska!" The
words had a fantastic sound in his own ears.

"You're marrying into her family."

"Oh, family--family!" he jeered.

"Newland--don't you care about Family?"

"Not a brass farthing."

"Nor about what cousin Louisa van der Luyden will
think?"

"Not the half of one--if she thinks such old maid's
rubbish."

"Mother is not an old maid," said his virgin sister
with pinched lips.

He felt like shouting back: "Yes, she is, and so are
the van der Luydens, and so we all are, when it comes
to being so much as brushed by the wing-tip of Reality."
But he saw her long gentle face puckering into
tears, and felt ashamed of the useless pain he was
inflicting.

"Hang Countess Olenska! Don't be a goose, Janey--
I'm not her keeper."