Bundle was attractive to men. Towards the end of "The Seven Dials Mystery", she received two proposals of marriage, the first from George Lomax, a pompous cabinet minister, only five years younger than her father, who was known behind his back as "codders" (alluding to his eyes) and was described incongruously as "His Majesty's permanent "" Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs". Lomax's unctuous self-assessment of his suitability as a husband, and of the role he saw for Bundle, had much in common with Mr Collins' unsuccessful wooing of Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" (1813).