resley."

"It is not necessary to be a detective in plain clothes to see that,"
said Dick.

"No. It generally needs to be a magnifying-glass to see a woman's
friendship, and then they are only expedients till we arrive, Dick. You
need not he jealous of Miss Gresley. Miss West will forget all about her
when she is Mrs. Vernon."

"She does not seem very keen about that," said Dick, grimly. "I'm only
marking time. I'm no forwarder than I was."

"Well, it's your own fault for fixing your affections on a woman who is
not anxious to marry. She has no objection to you. It is marriage she
does not like."

"Oh, that's bosh!" said Dick. "All women wish to be married, and if they
don't they ought to."

He felt that an invidious reflection had been east on Rachel.

"All the same, a man with one eye can see that women with money, or
anything that makes them independent of us, don't flatter us by their
alacrity to marry us. They will make fools of themselves for love--none
greater--and they will marry for love. But their different attitude
towards us, their natural lords and masters, directly we are no longer
necessary to them as stepping-stones to a home and a recognized
position, revolts me. If you had taken my advice at the start, you would
have made up to one among the mob of women who are dependent on marriage
for their very existence. If a man goes into that herd he will not be
refused. And if he is it does not matter. It is the blessed custom of
piling everything on to the eldest son, and leaving the women of the
family almost penniless, which provides half of us with wives without
any trouble to ourselves. Whatever we are, they have got to take us. The
average dancing young woman living in luxury in her father's house is
between the devil and the deep sea. We are frequently the devil; but it
is not surprising that she can't face the alternative--a poverty to
which she was not brought up, and in which she has seen her old spinster
aunts. But I suppose in your case you really want the money?"

Dick looked rather hard at Lord Newhaven.

"I should not have said that unless I had known it to be a lie,"
continued the latter, "because I dislike being kicked. But, Dick, listen
to me. You have not," with sudden misgiving, "laid any little
matrimonial project before her this evening, have you?"

"No; I was not quite such a fool as that."

"Well! Such things do occur. Moonlight, you know, etc. I was possessed
by a devil on