He had no warmer feeling for any of the grand cousins than a very ordinary cousinly love; and he had resolved, forgetful of birth and blood, and all those gigantic considerations which, now that manhood had come upon him, he was bound always to bear in mind,--he had resolved to sneak out to dinner comfortably with Mary Thorne if possible; and if not with Mary, then with his other love, Patience Oriel.
Great, therefore, was his consternation at finding that, after being kept continually in the foreground for half an hour before dinner, he had to walk out to the dining-room with his aunt the countess, and take his father's place for the day at the bottom of the table.
"It will now depend altogether upon yourself, Frank, whether you maintain or lose that high position in the county which has been held by the Greshams for so many years," said the countess, as she walked through the spacious hall, resolving to lose no time in teaching to her nephew that great lesson which it was so imperative that he should learn.
Frank took this as an ordinary lecture, meant to inculcate general good conduct, such as old bores of aunts are apt to inflict on youthful victims in the shape of nephews and nieces.
"Yes," said Frank; "I suppose so; and I mean to go along all square, aunt, and no mistake.

When I get back to Cambridge, I'll read like bricks." His aunt did not care two straws about his reading.

It was not by reading that the Greshams of Greshamsbury had held their heads up in the county, but by having high blood and plenty of money.

The blood had come naturally to this young man; but it behoved him to look for the money in a great measure himself.

She, Lady de Courcy, could doubtless help him; she might probably be able to fit him with a wife who would bring her money onto his birth.