Spooner?"
"Because--because--. I don't want to say a word against her, Lady
Chiltern. To me she is perfect as a star;--beautiful as a rose."
Mr. Spooner as he said this pointed first to the heavens and then
to the earth. "But perhaps she wouldn't have been so proud of her
grandfather hadn't he been a Duke."
"I don't think she is proud of that."
"People do think of it, Lady Chiltern; and I don't say that they
ought not. Of course it makes a difference, and when a man lives
altogether in the country, as I do, it seems to signify so much
more. But if you go back to old county families, Lady Chiltern, the
Spooners have been here pretty nearly as long as the Pallisers,--if
not longer. The Desponders, from whom we come, came over with William
the Conqueror."
"I have always heard that there isn't a more respectable family in
the county."
"That there isn't. There was a grant of land, which took their name,
and became the Manor of Despond; there's where Spoon Hall is now. Sir
Thomas Desponder was one of those who demanded the Charter, though
his name wasn't always given because he wasn't a baron.
Pages:
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
1221
1222
1223
1224
1225
1226
1227
1228
1229
1230
1231
1232
1233
1234
1235
1236
1237
1238
1239