‘No, but that is not the point, and you know it as well as I do. It would not matter if she were an angel with her wings hidden. Your mother will not permit it.’

‘Can she stop me, though, sir? I am of age.’

‘Legally, of course not, and it would be me who would have had that right when you were younger, but think, Martley. I will almost certainly be forced to cancel your allowance. How could you support a wife, especially a wife you value?’

‘So you are saying that I have to marry as Mama dictates?’

‘No, but not in direct opposition to her wishes.’

‘I think that is clear, sir.’ Lord Martley’s face set into an unnatural grimness. ‘I am forced to ask, were I to disobey her, and thus you, would you disown me, bequeath Hazelton House to one of my sisters’ husbands?’

‘When you inherit, you inherit title and lands, whether you are in favour or not.’ Lord Pirbright looked equally severe. He was, beneath a less than effusive exterior, mildly fond of his son, and he could see that relations were about to become extremely strained.

‘Thank you.’ Lord Martley paused. ‘I do not disobey from wilfulness, but if I can somehow win Miss Felbridge’s hand I will do so, Mama’s disapproval notwithstanding, sir.’

‘It is your choice, my boy, and your future. I say no more.’

‘Good day, sir. Give my … respects to my mother.’ Lord Martley bowed, and left, feeling both more the man and less the son.

Mr Newbold had not made serious overtures to a lady since his first Season, when, greenhorn that he was, he had been smitten by a golden-haired damsel who epitomised all that he then thought he would desire in a wife. In the end she had become the wife of an earl with acres, presented him with four sons, and died in giving birth to the fifth. He had been very cast down when his suit was rejected, and even vowed never to permit his heart to be trampled in such a manner again, but it had not been a bruised heart that kept him from the altar thereafter. Once recovered from his youthful infatuation, he discovered that amusement was best found among the older ladies, who had the confidence of the married state, and were not inhibited by instructions to simper, or look the ingenue. He developed a reputation, which he enjoyed, of being dangerously witty and also a confirmed bachelor. Watching the lures cast out at him, the caps set at him, amused him, and his rare liaisons were conducted with discretion. It occurred to him that, were he to marry, he would simply become another husband and lose his singularity among the Ton, and the longer he maintained it, the less inclined was he to set it aside for a pretty face.