y, as I should have made him a prey. But where is
there another who will treat him so well?"

"I cannot bear to hear you speak of yourself in that way."

"But it is true. I know the sort of girl he should marry. In the
first place she should be two years younger, and four years fresher.
She should be able not only to like him and love him, but to worship
him. How well I can see her! She should have fair hair, and bright
green-gray eyes, with the sweetest complexion, and the prettiest
little dimples;--two inches shorter than me, and the delight of her
life should be to hang with two hands on his arm. She should have a
feeling that her Silverbridge is an Apollo upon earth. To me he is a
rather foolish, but very, very sweet-tempered young man;--anything
rather than a god. If I thought that he would get the fresh young
girl with the dimples then I ought to abstain."

"If he was in earnest," said Miss Cassewary, throwing aside all this
badinage and thinking of the main point, "if he was in earnest he
will come again."

"He was quite in earnest."

"Then he will come again."

"I don't think he will," said Lady Mabel. "I told him that I was too
old for him, and I tried to laugh him out of it. He does not like
being laughed at. He has been saved, and he will know it."

"But if he should come again?"

"I shall not spare him again. No;--not twice. I felt it to be hard to
do so once, because I so nearly love him! There are so many of them
who are odious to me, as to whom the idea of marrying them seems to
be mixed somehow with an idea of suicide."

"Oh, Mabel!"

"But he is as sweet as a rose. If I were his sister, or his servant,
or his dog, I could be devoted to him. I can fancy that his comfort
and his success and his name should be everything to me."

"That is what a wife ought to feel."

"But I could never feel him to be my superior. That is what a
wife ought in truth to feel. Think of those two young men and the
difference between them! Well;--don't look like that at me. I don't
often give way, and I dare say after all I shall live to be the
Duchess of Omnium." Then she kissed her friend and went away to her
own room.

CHAPTER XXI

Sir Timothy Beeswax

There had lately been a great Conservative reaction in the country,
brought about in part by the industry and good management of
gentlemen who were strong on that side;--but due also in part to the
blunders and quarrels of their opponents. That these