"But then you have a salary, don't you?"

"At present I have; but no one can tell how long that may last."

"I'm sure it's for everybody's good that it should go on for ever so many
years," said Lizzie.

"Thank you," said Lord Fawn. "I'm afraid, however, there are a great many
people who don't think so. Your cousin Greystock would do anything on
earth to turn us out."

"Luckily my cousin Frank has not much power," said Lizzie. And in saying
it she threw into her tone, and into her countenance, a certain amount of
contempt for Frank as a man and as a politician, which was pleasant to
Lord Fawn.

"Now," said he, "I have told you everything about myself which I was
bound, as a man of honour, to tell before I--I--I----. In short, you know
what I mean."

"Oh, Lord Fawn!"

"I have told you everything. I owe no money, but I could not afford to
marry a wife without an income. I admire you more than any woman I ever
saw. I love you with all my heart." He was now standing upright before
her, with the fingers of his right hand touching his left breast, and
there was something almost of dignity in his gesture and demeanour. "It
may be that you are determined never to marry again. I can only say that
if you will trust yourself to me--yourself and your child--I will do my