s, and Somerset contrived to interrupt him by asking--

'Captain De Stancy, too, has gone? Has the artillery, then, left the
barracks?'

'No,' said Sir William. 'But my son has made use of his leave in running
over to see his sister at Nice.'

The current of quiet meditation in Somerset changed to a busy whirl at
this reply. That Paula should become indifferent to his existence from a
sense of superiority, physical, spiritual, or social, was a sufficiently
ironical thing; but that she should have relinquished him because of the
presence of a rival lent commonplace dreariness to her cruelty.

Sir William, noting nothing, continued in the tone of clever
childishness which characterized him: 'It is very singular how the
present situation has been led up to by me. Policy, and policy alone,
has been the rule of my conduct for many years past; and when I say that
I have saved my family by it, I believe time will show that I am within
the truth. I hope you don't let your passions outrun your policy, as so
many young men are apt to do. Better be poor and politic, than rich and
headstrong: that's the opinion of an old man. However, I was going
to say that it was purely from policy that I allowed a friendship to
develop between my daughter and Miss Power, and now events are proving
the wisdom of my course. Straws show how the wind blows, and there are
little signs that my son Captain De Stancy will return to Stancy Castle
by the fortunate step of marrying its owner. I say nothing to either of
them, and they say nothing to me; but my wisdom lies in doing nothing to
hinder such a consummation, despite inherited prejudices.'

Somerset had quite time enough to rein himself in during the old
gentleman's locution, and the voice in which he answered was so cold and
reckless that it did not seem his own: 'But how will they live happily
together when she is a Dissenter, and a Radical, and a New-light, and
a Neo-Greek, and a person of red blood; while Captain De Stancy is the
reverse of them all!'

'I anticipate no difficulty on that score,' said the baronet. 'My son's
star lies in that direction, and, like the Magi, he is following it
without trifling with his opportunity. You have skill in architecture,
therefore you follow it. My son has skill in gallantry, and now he is
about to exercise it profitably.'

'May nobody wish him more harm in that exercise than I do!' said
Somerset fervently.

A stagnant moodiness of several hours