Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

29. CHAPTER XXIX: THERE IS NOTHING TO TELL (continued)

'There is an end of the old dragon now, so far as I am concerned.'

'Of course there is and of the young dragon too. You wouldn't have had the heart to keep me in suspense if you had accepted him again. You couldn't have been so pleasant last night if that had been so.'

'I did not know I was very pleasant.'

'Yes, you were. You were soft and gracious gracious for you, at least. And now, dear, do tell me about it. Of course I am dying to know.'

'There is nothing to tell.'

'That is nonsense. There must be a thousand things to tell. At any rate it is quite decided?'

'Yes; it is quite decided.'

'All the dragons, old and young, are banished into outer darkness.'

'Either that, or else they are to have all the light to themselves.'

'Such light as glimmers through the gloom of Aylmer Park. And was he contented? I hope not. I hope you had him on his knees before he left you.'

'Why should you hope that? How can you talk such nonsense?'

'Because I wish that he should recognize what he has lost that he should know that he has been a fool a mean fool.'

'Mrs Askerton, I will not have him spoken of like that. He is a man very estimable of estimable qualities.'

'Fiddle-de-dee. He is an ape a monkey to be carried on his mother's organ. His only good quality was that you could have carried him on yours. I can tell you one thing there is not a woman breathing that will ever carry William Belton on hers. Whoever his wife may be, she will have to dance to his piping.'