energy;
'I am certain that I never can be happy, except in your society and
Plantagenet's. I cannot express to you how I love you both. Nothing
else gives me the slightest interest.'

'You must go home and marry,' said Venetia, smiling 'You must marry an
heiress.'

'Never,' said Captain Cadurcis. 'Nothing shall ever induce me to
marry. No! all my dreams are confined to being the bachelor uncle of
the family.'

'Well, now I think,' said Venetia, 'of all the persons I know, there
is no one so qualified for domestic happiness as yourself. I think
your wife, George, would be a very fortunate woman, and I only wish I
had a sister, that you might marry her.'

'I wish you had, Venetia; I would give up my resolution against
marriage directly.'

'Alas!' said Venetia, 'there is always some bitter drop in the cup of
life. Must you indeed go, George?'

'My present departure is inevitable,' he replied; 'but I have some
thoughts of giving up my profession and Parliament, and then I will
return, never to leave you again.'

'What will Lord ---- say? That will never do,' said Venetia. 'No; I
should not be content unless you prospered in the world, George. You
are made to prosper, and I should be miserable if you sacrificed your
existence to us. You must go home, and you must marry, and write
letters to us by every post, and tell us what a happy man you are. The
best thing for you to do would be to live with your wife at the abbey;
or Cherbury, if you liked. You see I settle everything.'

'I never will marry,' said Captain Cadurcis, seriously.

'Yes you will,' said Venetia.

'I am quite serious, Venetia. Now, mark my words, and remember this
day. I never will marry. I have a reason, and a strong and good one,
for my resolution.'

'What is it?'

'Because my marriage will destroy the intimacy that subsists between
me and yourself, and Plantagenet,' he added.

'Your wife should be my friend,' said Venetia.

'Happy woman!' said George.

'Let us indulge for a moment in a dream of domestic bliss,' said
Venetia gaily. 'Papa and mamma at Cherbury; Plantagenet and myself at
the abbey, where you and your wife must remain until we could build
you a house; and Dr. Masham coming down to spend Christmas with us.
Would it not be delightful? I only hope Plantagenet would be tame. I
think he would burst out a little sometimes.'

'Not with you, Venetia, not with you,' said George 'you have a hold
over him which nothing can ever sha