Why, not a week ago, one of the finest soldiers in the army, a field-marshal, a household word in the homes of England, had button-holed the General to congratulate him on a speech of Robin's.
"That young man will be a credit to you, Drummond," he had said.

"Mark my words, that young man will be a credit to you." And the General had been oddly impressed by the opinion, coming from his old comrade in arms, and one of the finest soldiers that ever stepped.
And, to be sure, he had been trying to set Nelly against Robin all the days of her life.
When he had come to this point in his meditations he groaned aloud.

A thought had come to him of how little Nelly would be really his, married to Robin Drummond.

He would have no need for the house then.

He would have to dismiss the servants, the old servants of whom he was fond, who adored him, and go into lodgings.