of Dis, otherwise Trade. All three persons of singular beauty, a
certain refinement, some Port, and some Presence, hereditarily combined,
they feared the clutch of that fell king, and performed the widest
possible circles around him. Not one of them ever approached the house of
her parents. They were dutiful and loving children, and wrote frequently;
but of course they had to consider their new position, and their
husbands, and their husbands' families, and the world, and what it would
say, if to it the dreaded rumour should penetrate! Lymport gossips, as
numerous as in other parts, declared that the foreign nobleman would rave
in an extraordinary manner, and do things after the outlandish fashion of
his country: for from him, there was no doubt, the shop had been most
successfully veiled, and he knew not of Pluto's close relationship to his
lovely spouse.

The marriages had happened in this way. Balls are given in country towns,
where the graces of tradesmen's daughters may be witnessed and admired at
leisure by other than tradesmen: by occasional country gentlemen of the
neighbourhood, with light minds: and also by small officers: subalterns
wishing to do tender execution upon man's fair enemy, and to find a
distraction for their legs. The classes of our social fabric have, here
and there, slight connecting links, and provincial public balls are one
of these. They are dangerous, for Cupid is no respecter of
class-prejudice; and if you are the son of a retired tea-merchant, or of
a village doctor, or of a half-pay captain, or of anything superior, and
visit one of them, you are as likely to receive his shot as any shopboy.
Even masquerading lords at such places, have been known to be slain
outright; and although Society allows to its highest and dearest to save
the honour of their families, and heal their anguish, by indecorous
compromise, you, if you are a trifle below that mark, must not expect it.
You must absolutely give yourself for what you hope to get. Dreadful as
it sounds to philosophic ears, you must marry. This, having danced with
Caroline Harrington, the gallant Lieutenant Strike determined to do. Nor,
when he became aware of her father's occupation, did he shrink from his
resolve. After a month's hard courtship, he married her straight out of
her father's house. That he may have all the credit due to him, it must
be admitted that he did not once compare, or possibly permit himself to
reflect on, the dissim