"
"Stay a moment, Jack. I want you to explain your wishes to Mr. Beverley
in regard to Cleone's future."
"Certainly, your Grace--I say by all means, mam."
"Very well, then I'll begin. Listen--both of you. Captain Chumly,
being a bachelor and consequently an authority on marriage, has,
very properly, chosen whom his ward must marry; he has quite settled
and arranged it all, haven't you, Jack?"
"Quite, mam, quite."
"Thus, Cleone is saved all the bother and worry of choosing for
herself, you see, Mr. Beverley, for the Captain's choice is fixed,--
isn't it, Jack?"
"As a rock, mam--I say as an accurs--ha! an adamantine crag, mam.
My ward shall marry my nephew, Viscount Devenham, I am determined
on it--"
"Consequently, Mr. Beverley, Cleone will, of course,
marry--whomsoever she pleases!"
"Eh, mam? I say, what?--I say--"
"Like the feminine creature she is, Mr. Beverley!"
"Now by Og,--I say by Og and Gog, mam! She is my ward, and so long
as I am her guardian she shall obey--"
"I say boh! Jack Chumly,--I say bah!" mocked the Duchess, nodding
her head at him. "Cleone is much too clever for you--or any other man,
and there is only one woman in this big world who is a match for her,
and that woman is--me.
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