girl who would link her fortunes with one's own, and help one through the
sultry hours, is no bad thing.'

'The nice girl wouldn't go there.'

'I'm not so sure of that. With your great knowledge of life, you must know
that there has been a glut in "the nice-girl" market these years back.
Prime lots are sold for a song occasionally, and first-rate samples sent as
far as Calcutta. The truth is, the fellow who looks like a real buyer may
have the pick of the fair, as they call it here.'

So he ought,' growled out the major.

'The speech is not a gallant one. You are scarcely complimentary to the
ladies, Lockwood.'

'It was you that talked of a woman like a cow, or a sack of corn, not I.'

'I employed an illustration to answer one of your own arguments.'

'Who is she to be?' bluntly asked the major.

'I'll tell you whom I mean to ask, for I have not put the question yet.'

'A long, fine whistle expressed the other's astonishment. 'And are you so
sure she'll say Yes?'

'I have no other assurance than the conviction that a woman might do
worse.'

'Humph! perhaps she might. I'm not quite certain; but who is she to be?'

'Do you remember a visit we made together to a certain Kilgobbin Castle.'

'To be sure I do. A rum old ruin it was.'

'Do you remember two young ladies we met there?'

'Perfectly. Are you going to marry both of them?'

'My intention is to propose to one, and I imagine I need not tell you
which?'

'Naturally, the Irish girl. She saved your life--'

'Pray let me undeceive you in a double error. It is not the Irish girl; nor
did she save my life.'

'Perhaps not; but she risked her own to save yours. You said so yourself at
the time.'

'We'll not discuss the point now. I hope I feel duly grateful for the
young lady's heroism, though it is not exactly my intention to record my
gratitude in a special license.'

'A very equivocal sort of repayment,' grumbled out Lockwood.

'You are epigrammatic this evening, major.'

'So, then, it's the Greek you mean to marry?'

'It is the Greek I mean to ask.'

'All right. I hope she'll take you. I think, on the whole, you suit each
other. If I were at all disposed to that sort of bondage, I don't know a
girl I'd rather risk the road with than the Irish cousin, Miss Kearney.'

'She is very pretty, exceedingly obliging, and has most winning manners.'

'She is good-tempered, and she is natural--the two best things a woman can
be.'

'Why not come do