"I admit that Lady Greendale is a very charming woman, but you don't think that she can imagine for a moment that I have ever entertained any idea of such a thing?
You said that I was to amuse her if I could.

I have tried my best to keep the old lady as much to myself as possible, so as to enable all you young people to carry out your flirtations to your heart's content.

By gad, sir, it would be a nice return for following out your instructions to find myself in such a hole as that." Frank had some difficulty in persuading the Colonel that his remark was not meant as a serious one, and that there was no fear whatever that Lady Greendale had ever had the slightest reason to suppose that his intentions were not of a most Platonic nature.
"I am heartily glad," the Colonel said, when he was quite pacified, "that Hawley's affair has come off all right.

Even if she had not been an heiress I should have said that he was a lucky fellow, for she is an extremely nice and pleasant young woman, without any nonsense about her; still there is no doubt that her fortune will come in very handy for Hawley.

As to the girl herself, I think she has made a very good choice.