Conduit Street. He has a daughter, and he will give
her twenty thousand pounds."

"You don't mean to run away with the breeches-maker's daughter?"
ejaculated Sir Thomas.

"Certainly not. I shouldn't get the twenty thousand pounds if I did."
Then he explained it all;--how Neefit had asked him to the house, and
offered him the girl; how the girl herself was as pretty and nice as
a girl could be; and how he thought,--though as to that he expressed
himself with some humility,--that, were he to propose to her, the
girl might perhaps take him.

"I dare say she would," said Sir Thomas.

"Well;--now you know it all. In her way, she has been educated.
Neefit pere is utterly illiterate and ignorant. He is an honest man,
as vulgar as he can be,--or rather as unlike you and me, which is
what men mean when they talk of vulgarity,--and he makes the best
of breeches. Neefit mere is worse than the father,--being cross and
ill-conditioned, as far as I can see. Polly is as good as gold; and
if I put a house over my head with her money, of course her father
and her mother will be made welcome there. Your daughters would not
like to meet them, but I think they could put up with Polly. Now you
know about all that I can tell you."

Ralph had been so rapid, so energetic, and withal so reasonable, that
Sir Thomas, at this period of the interview, was unable to refer to
any of his prophecies. What advice was he to give? Should he adjure
this young man not to marry the breeches-maker's daughter because of
the blood of the Newtons and the expected estate, or were he to do so
even on the score of education and general unfitness, he must suggest
some other mode or means of living. But how could he advise the
future Newton of Newton Priory to marry Polly Neefit? The Newtons had
been at Newton Priory for centuries, and the men Newtons had always
married ladies, as the women Newtons had always either married
gentlemen or remained unmarried. Sir Thomas, too, was of his nature,
and by all his convictions, opposed to such matches. "You have hardly
realised," said he, "what it would be to have such a father-in-law
and such a mother-in-law;--or probably such a wife."

"Yes, I have. I have realised all that."

"Of course, if you have made up your mind--"

"But I have not made up my mind, Sir Thomas. I must make it up
before eleven o'clock to-morrow morning, because I must then be with
Neefit,--by appointment. At this moment I am so much in doubt