e seldom speaks in the House, I believe, but when he does
it's offhand, and amusing, and sensible, and every one likes it. He
will never be a great statesman, but he will add to the softness of
Dorsetshire, and remain, in short, a very gallant, pleasant, prosperous,
typical English gentleman, with a name, a fortune, a perfect appearance,
a devoted, bewildered little wife, a great many reminiscences, a great
many friends (including Lady Vandeleur and myself), and, strange to
say, with all these advantages, something that faintly resembles a
conscience.

II.

Five years ago he told me his father insisted on his marrying,--would
not hear of his putting it off any longer. Sir Edmund had been harping
on this string ever since he came back from Germany, had made it both
a general and a particular request, not only urging him to matrimony in
the abstract, but pushing him into the arms of every young woman in the
country. Ambrose had promised, procrastinated, temporized; but at last
he was at the end of his evasions, and his poor father had taken the
tone of supplication. "He thinks immensely of the name, of the place and
all that, and he has got it into his head that if I don't marry before
he dies, I won't marry after." So much I remember Ambrose Tester said to
me. "It's a fixed idea; he has got it on the brain. He wants to see me
married with his eyes, and he wants to take his grandson in his arms.
Not without that will he be satisfied that the whole thing will go
straight. He thinks he is nearing his end, but he isn't,--he will live
to see a hundred, don't you think so?--and he has made me a solemn
appeal to put an end to what he calls his suspense. He has an idea some
one will get hold of me--some woman I can't marry. As if I were not old
enough to take care of myself!"

"Perhaps he is afraid of me," I suggested, facetiously.

"No, it is n't you," said my visitor, betraying by his tone that it was
some one, though he didn't say whom. "That's all rot, of course; one
marries sooner or later, and I shall do like every one else. If I marry
before I die, it's as good as if I marry before he dies, is n't it? I
should be delighted to have the governor at my wedding, but it is n't
necessary for the legality, is it?"

I asked him what he wished me to do, and how I could help him. He knew
already my peculiar views, that I was trying to get husbands for all the
girls of my acquaintance and to prevent the men from taking wi