, if I were you, my dear boy, I should choose a soldier. You
know your poor grandfather, who ran away to America with that _wicked_
Mrs. Featherly, the banker's wife, was a soldier, and so was your poor
cousin Robert, who lost eight thousand pounds at Monte Carlo. I have
always felt singularly drawn towards soldiers, even as a girl; though
your poor dear uncle could not bear them. You will find many
allusions to soldiers and men of war in the Old Testament (see Jer.
xlviii. 14). Of course one does not like to think of their fighting
and killing each other, but then they do not seem to do that sort of
thing nowadays."

"So much for the old lady," said MacShaughnassy, as he folded up the
letter and returned it to his pocket. "What says culture?"

Brown produced from his cigar-case a letter addressed in a bold round
hand, and read as follows:

"What a curious coincidence! A few of us were discussing this very
subject last night in Millicent Hightopper's rooms, and I may tell you
at once that our decision was unanimous in favour of soldiers. You
see, my dear Selkirk, in human nature the attraction is towards the
opposite. To a milliner's apprentice a poet would no doubt be
satisfying; to a woman of intelligence he would he an unutterable
bore. What the intellectual woman requires in man is not something to
argue with, but something to look at. To an empty-headed woman I can
imagine the soldier type proving vapid and uninteresting; to the woman
of mind he represents her ideal of man--a creature strong, handsome,
well-dressed, and not too clever."

"That gives us two votes for the army," remarked MacShaughnassy, as Brown
tore his sister's letter in two, and threw the pieces into the
waste-paper basket. "What says the common-sensed girl?"

"First catch your common-sensed girl," muttered Jephson, a little
grumpily, as it seemed to me. "Where do you propose finding her?"

"Well," returned MacShaughnassy, "I looked to find her in Miss Medbury."

As a rule, the mention of Miss Medbury's name brings a flush of joy to
Jephson's face; but now his features wore an expression distinctly
approaching a scowl.

"Oh!" he replied, "did you? Well, then, the common-sensed girl loves the
military also."

"By Jove!" exclaimed MacShaughnassy, "what an extraordinary thing. What
reason does she give?"

"That there's a something about them, and that they dance so d