I don't know who your father was,--whether he was an Englishman, whether he was a Christian, whether he was a Protestant,--not even whether he was a gentleman.

These are questions which I should not dream of asking under any other circumstances;--would be matters with which I should have no possible concern, if you were simply an acquaintance.

But when you talk to a man about his daughter--!" "I acknowledge freely your right of inquiry." "And I know nothing of your means;--nothing whatever.

I understand that you live as a man of fortune, but I presume that you earn your bread.

I know nothing of the way in which you earn it, nothing of the certainty or amount of your means." "Those things are of course matters for inquiry; but may I presume that you have no objection which satisfactory answers to such questions may not remove ?" "I shall never willingly give my daughter to any one who is not the son of an English gentleman.