fore she went to Homburg in the autumn.

With the curate it was otherwise. He--Jack Ives, by the way, was his
name--appeared to rush, not only upon his fate, but in the face of all
possibility and of Lady Queenborough. My cousin and hostess, Dora
Polton, was very much distressed about him. She said that he was such
a nice young fellow, and that it was a great pity to see him preparing
such unhappiness for himself. Nay, I happen to know that she spoke very
seriously to Trix, pointing out the wickedness of trifling with him;
whereupon Trix, who maintained a bowing acquaintance with her
conscience, avoided him for a whole afternoon and endangered all Algy
Stanton's prudent resolutions by taking him out in the Canadian canoe.
This demonstration in no way perturbed the curate. He observed that,
as there was nothing better to do, we might as well play billiards, and
proceeded to defeat me in three games of a hundred up (no, it is quite
immaterial whether we played for anything or not), after which he told
Dora that the vicar was taking the evening service--it happened to be
the day when there was one at the parish church--a piece of information
only relevant in so far as it suggested that Mr. Ives could accept an
invitation to dinner if one were proffered him. Dora, very weakly,
rose to the bait. Jack Ives, airily remarking that there was no use in
ceremony among friends, seized the place next to Trix at dinner (her
mother was just opposite) and walked on the terrace after dinner with
her in the moonlight. When the ladies retired he came into the smoking
room, drank a whisky and soda, said that Miss Queenborough was really a
very charming companion, and apologized for leaving us early, on the
ground that his sermon was still unwritten. My good cousin, the
squire, suggested rather grimly that a discourse on the vanity of human
wishes might be appropriate.

"I shall preach," said Mr. Ives thoughtfully, "on the opportunities of
wealth."

This resolution he carried out on the next day but one, that being a
Sunday. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Miss Trix, and I watched
her with some interest as Mr. Ives developed his theme. I will not try
to reproduce the sermon, which would have seemed by no means a bad one
had any of our party been able to ignore the personal application which
we read into it; for its main burden was no other than this--that
wealth should be used by those who were fortunate enough to possess