"If I... what?" he tried to follow her argument, and it only really started to click into place once she had finished. It was part of a plan, and not a general need to have a title of some kind. "I don't even know what would tempt her short of a marquess or a princess or..." he shrugged. It sounded a little farcical, honestly. But Lydia was a silly, flighty sort of a girl.
But at her next remark he did grow a little more serious. Oh, his blasted aunt, of course. He'd all but forgotten. "Lady Catherine is going to be utterly reprehensible to you no matter who she thinks you are," he told her. A title might give her less ammunition, but the fact would remain that she wasn't Miss De Bourgh. And she was American. "But... please, do not feel that you have to pretend to be anything you are not just to satisfy a bitter old woman."