“Tell me, Miss Slythe, are you not betrothed to a Mr. Samuel Scammell?”

She nodded.

He smiled. “That was your dear father’s wish, was it not?”

“Yes, sir.”

He stared at her, still smiling. “Tell me, Dorcas, you don’t mind me calling you Dorcas?”

“No, sir.”

“Then tell me, Dorcas, for I am ever curious, do you want to marry Mr. Scammell?”

She hesitated, seeing the bulging eyes staring at her, seeing into her, and she wondered whether the truth would do her harm. She frowned. “No, sir.”

“Ah!” He sounded surprised. “How odd, how singularly odd. I never married, Dorcas. No. I have devoted my life to the harsh taskmastership of the law, of Chancery law, and of late, no doubt because I am not burdened with a wife, I have been asked to add my humble opinion to those who guide our ship of state. I understand, you see, much of law, and much of public policy, but little, I fear, of marriage. However, I always believed that young ladies such as yourself had little interest in anything but marriage. Do you not wish to be married, Dorcas? Do you desire, like myself, to devote yourself to the law?”

She nodded and spoke slowly. “I would like to marry, sir.”

“Ah!” He held up a hand in mock surprise. “I understand! It is Mr. Scammell who is the problem, yes? You are not, perhaps, I think the vulgar phrase is ‘in love’?”

“I do not love Mr. Scammell, sir.”

“Ah! You poor child. You poor, poor child. You want to be in love! You want the stars spread beneath your feet in a carpet of light, you want flowers in your heaven, and you want to meet a twin soul, breast on breast, and live in harmony and gold. Is that right?” She did not answer, and he chuckled. “You have, I presume, read the marriage settlement?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yet still you want love? Ah, but of course, you are not a lawyer as I am. True, I must divide my time between the councils of state and the Court of Chancery, but I still retain a few scraps of useful law in my old head. Mr. Scammell, I believe, has signed the marriage agreement?”

“I believe so, sir.”

“Your belief is well founded. I assure you he has! He has moved from his London house, from his business of creating river-craft, and he has hired a man to keep his place of business going, and all so that he could devote himself to you! And now, because you want the stars at your feet, Mr. Scammell must be disappointed! He has spent money on this marriage, Dorcas, he has made sacrifices, and in return he has been promised much! He is like a man who, having paid his price, is denied the goods! Do you not think, dear child, that Mr. Scammell might now have recourse to the lawyers?”

His voice mocked her, taunted her, yet she could not take her eyes from the grotesque face that leered at her, smiling. He paused, she made no reply, and he chuckled.