husband at breakfast, "I've made
another match. I thought at the time he liked her. You remember Rachel
West, not pretty, but with a nice expression--and what does beauty
matter? She is engaged to Mr. Scarlett."

"Quiet, decent chap," said Doll; "and I like _her_. No nonsense about
her. Good thing he wasn't drowned."

"Mr. Harvey will feel it. He confided to me that she was his ideal. Now
Rachel is everything that is sweet and good and dear, and she will make
a most excellent wife, but I should never have thought, would you, that
she could be anybody's ideal?"

Doll opened his mouth to say, "That depends," but remembered that his
wife had taken an unaccountable dislike to that simple phrase, and
remained silent.

* * * * *

Captain Pratt, who was spending Christmas with his family, was the only
person at Warpington Towers who read the papers. On this particular
morning he came down to a late breakfast after the others had finished.
His father, who was always down at eight, secretly admired his son's
aristocratic habits, while he affected to laugh at them. "Shameful
luxurious ways, these young men in the Guards. Fashionable society is
rotten, sir; rotten to the core. Never get up till noon. My boy is as
bad as any of them."

Captain Pratt propped up the paper open before him while he sipped his
coffee and glanced down the columns. His travelling eye reached Hugh's
engagement.

Captain Pratt rarely betrayed any feeling except ennui, but as he read,
astonishment got the better of him.

"By George!" he said, below his breath.

The bit of omelette on its way to his mouth was slowly lowered again,
and remained sticking on the end of his fork.

_What did it mean?_ He recalled that scene in Hugh's rooms _only last
week_. He had spoken of it to no one, for he intended to earn gratitude
by his discretion. Of course, Scarlett was going to marry Lady Newhaven
after a decent interval. She was a very beautiful woman, with a large
jointure, and she was obviously in love with him. The question of her
conduct was not considered. It never entered Captain Pratt's head, any
more than that of a ten-year-old child. He was aware that all the women
of the upper classes were immoral, except newly come-out girls. That was
an established fact. The only difference between the individuals, which
caused a separation as of the sheep from the goats, was whether they
were compromised or not. Lady Newhaven wa