And I do long for such a triumph. If my lord would only invite
us here, were it but for a week! We should be asked to Goreham and the
Bexsmiths'. My lady never omits to invite a great beauty. It's _her_ way to
protest that she is still handsome, and not at all jealous. How are we to
get "asked" to Bruton Street?' asked he over and over, as though the sounds
must secure the answer. 'Maude will never permit it. The unlucky picture
has settled _that_ point. Maude will not suffer her to cross the threshold!
But for the portrait I could bespeak my cousin's favour and indulgence for
a somewhat countrified young girl, dowdy and awkward. I could plead for her
good looks in that _ad misericordiam_ fashion that disarms jealousy and
enlists her generosity for a humble connection she need never see more of!
If I could only persuade Maude that I had done an indiscretion, and that I
knew it, I should be sure of her friendship. Once make her believe that I
have gone clean head over heels into a _mesalliance_, and our honeymoon
here is assured. I wish I had not tormented her about Atlee. I wish
with all my heart I had kept my impertinences to myself, and gone no
further than certain dark hints about what I could say, if I were to be
evil-minded. What rare wisdom it is not to fire away one's last cartridge.
I suppose it is too late now. She'll not forgive me that disparagement
before my uncle; that is, if there be anything between herself and Atlee,
a point which a few minutes will settle when I see them together. It would
not be very difficult to make Atlee regard me as his friend, and as one
ready to aid him in this same ambition. Of course he is prepared to see in
me the enemy of all his plans. What would he not give, or say, or do, to
find me his aider and abettor? Shrewd tactician as the fellow is, he will
know all the value of having an accomplice within the fortress; and it
would be exactly from a man like myself he might be disposed to expect the
most resolute opposition.'

He thought for a long time over this. He turned it over and over in his
mind, canvassing all the various benefits any line of action might promise,
and starting every doubt or objection he could imagine. Nor was the thought
extraneous to his calculations that in forwarding Atlee's suit to Maude he
was exacting the heaviest 'vendetta' for her refusal of himself.

'There is not a woman in Europe,' he exclaimed, 'less fitted to encounter
small means and a small