not think you meant it."

"I would not say a word to hurt you,--oh, for more than I can tell
you."

"It is all bosh, of course," he said laughing; "but I do not like to
hear the old place named. I have always made a fool of myself. Some
men do it and don't care about it. But I do it, and yet it makes me
miserable."

"If that be so you will soon give over making--what you call a fool
of yourself. For myself I like the idea of wild oats. I look upon
them like measles. Only you should have a doctor ready when the
disease shows itself."

"What sort of a doctor ought I to have?"

"Ah;--you must find out that yourself. That sort of feeling which
makes you feel miserable;--that is a doctor itself."

"Or a wife?"

"Or a wife,--if you can find a good one. There are wives, you know,
who aggravate the disease. If I had a fast husband I should make him
faster by being fast myself. There is nothing I envy so much as the
power of doing half-mad things."

"Women can do that too."

"But they go to the dogs. We are dreadfully restricted. If you like
champagne you can have a bucketful. I am obliged to pretend that I
only want a very little. You can bet thousands. I must confine myself
to gloves. You can flirt with any woman you please. I must wait till
somebody comes,--and put up with it if nobody does come."

"Plenty come, no doubt."

"But I want to pick and choose. A man turns the girls over one after
another as one does the papers when one is fitting up a room, or
rolls them out as one rolls out the carpets. A very careful young man
like Lord Popplecourt might reject a young woman because her hair
didn't suit the colour of his furniture."

"I don't think that I shall choose my wife as I would papers and
carpets."

The Duke, who sat between Lady Cantrip and her daughter, did
his best to make himself agreeable. The conversation had been
semi-political,--political to the usual feminine extent, and had
consisted chiefly of sarcasms from Lady Cantrip against Sir Timothy
Beeswax. "That England should put up with such a man," Lady Cantrip
had said, "is to me shocking! There used to be a feeling in favour
of gentlemen." To this the Duke had responded by asserting that Sir
Timothy had displayed great aptitude for parliamentary life, and
knew the House of Commons better than most men. He said nothing
against his foe, and very much in his foe's praise. But Lady Cantrip
perceived that she had succeeded in pleasing him.

When