losophically. "The fact
is, you want to revenge yourself on Lady Alice through me, and yet you
don't consider _me_ in the very least. If I married this Lesley Brooke,
Lady Alice and all the Courtleroys would no doubt get into an awful rage
with her and you and me and everybody; and what would be the upshot?
Why, they would cut her off with a shilling and we should be next door
to penniless. Then Brooke--well, he may be fairly prosperous, but he has
only what he makes, you know; and I doubt if he could settle very much
upon his daughter, even if he wanted to. And he does not like me. I
doubt whether even _you_, my dear Rosy, could dispose him to look
favorably on my advances."

Mrs. Romaine was perhaps convinced, but she did not like to own herself
mistaken. She was silent for a minute or two, and then said with a sigh
and a smile--

"You may be right. But it would have been splendid if you could have
married Lesley Brooke. We should have been thorns in Lady Alice's side
ever afterwards."

"You are one already, aren't you?" asked Oliver. He got up from the
table and approached the mantelpiece as if to show that the discussion
was ended. "No, my dear Rosalind," he said, "I'm booked. I am going to
woo and wed Miss Ethel Kenyon and her twenty thousand pounds. She will
be sick of her fad for the stage in twelve months. And then we shall
live very comfortably. But I'll tell you what I will do to please you.
I'll _flirt_ with this Lesley girl, nineteen to the dozen. I'll make
love to her: I'll win her young affections, and do my best to break her
heart, if you like. How would that suit you?"

He spoke with a smile, but Rosalind knew that there was a ring of
serious earnest in his voice.

"It sounds a very cold-blooded sort of thing to do," she said.

"Please yourself. I won't do it, then."

"Oh, Oliver----"

"Yes, I know you would like to see Lady Alice's daughter pining away for
love of me," said Oliver, with a little laugh. "It is not a bad idea.
The difficulty will be to manage both girls--seriously, Rosalind, Ethel
Kenyon is the girl I mean to marry."

"You are clever enough for anything if you like."

"Thank you. Well, I'll see how far I can go."

"I must tell you, first, however," said Mrs. Romaine, with some
hesitation, "that I told Lesley Brooke this afternoon that you were in
love with Ethel. I had not thought of this plan, you see, Oliver."

"Ah, that complicates matters. Still, I think that we can man