"Was it you?" Mr. Touchett eagerly asked.
"No, it was an older friend; a poor gentleman who came over from America to see about it."
"Well, I＇m sorry for him, whoever he was. But it only proves what I say—that the way＇s open to you."
"If it is, dear father, it＇s all the greater pity that I＇m unable to tread it. I haven＇t many convictions;but I have three or four that I hold strongly. One is that people, on the whole, had better not marry their cousins. Another is that people in an advanced stage of pulmonary disorder had better not marry at all."