.

"You see I can be very frank with a real friend. But I am sure of
myself in this,--that I will never marry a man I do not love. A girl
needn't love a man unless she likes it, I suppose. She doesn't tumble
into love as she does into the fire. It would not suit me to marry a
poor man, and so I don't mean to fall in love with a poor man."

"But you do mean to fall in love with a rich one?"

"That remains to be seen, Lord Silverbridge. The rich man will at any
rate have to fall in love with me first. If you know of any one you
need not tell him to be too sure because he has a good income."

"There's Popplecourt. He's his own master, and, fool as he is, he
knows how to keep his money."

"I don't want a fool. You must do better for me than Lord
Popplecourt."

"What do you say to Dolly Longstaff?"

"He would be just the man, only he never would take the trouble to
come out and be married."

"Or Glasslough?"

"I'm afraid he is cross, and wouldn't let me have my own way."

"I can only think of one other;--but you would not take him."

"Then you had better not mention him. It is no good crowding the list
with impossibles."

"I was thinking of--myself."

"You are certainly one of the impossibles."

"Why, Lady Mab?"

"For twenty reasons. You are too young, and you are bound to oblige
your father, and you are to be wedded to Parliament,--at any rate for
the next ten years. And altogether it wouldn't do,--for a great many
reasons."

"I suppose you don't like me well enough?"

"What a question to ask! No; my Lord, I do not. There; that's what
you may call an answer. Don't you pretend to look offended, because
if you do, I shall laugh at you. If you may have your joke surely I
may have mine."

"I don't see any joke in it."

"But I do. Suppose I were to say the other thing. Oh, Lord
Silverbridge, you do me so much honour! And now I come to think about
it, there is no one in the world I am so fond of as you. Would that
suit you?"

"Exactly."

"But it wouldn't suit me. There's papa. Don't run away."

"It's ever so much past five," said the legislator, "and I had
intended to be in the House more than an hour ago. Good-bye. Give my
love to Miss Cassewary."

"Certainly. Miss Cassewary is your most devoted friend. Won't you
bring your sister to see me some day?"

"When she is in town I will."

"I should so like to know her. Good-bye."

As he hurried down to the House in a hansom he thought over it all,