uld not have been more pleased if
he had been better connected," she said to those old friends and
acquaintances whose Christianity led them to call. "I share your
opinion, dear Mrs. ----" (the name varied according to circumstances)
"about the value of birth; but one can't have everything; he is a most
able man, and really charming. It is such a good thing that he is so
much older than Cherie; I always felt she needed an older man to guide
and care for her--he is positively devoted to her; you know, the
devotion of a man of that age is such a different thing from a boy's
affection."

After that the visitor could not reasonably do anything but inquire if
Mr. Smith was going to throw up the South African post which all the
town knew he was about to take before his engagement.

To this Mr. Polkington was obliged to answer, "No, he is going, and
going almost directly; that is my one hardship; I have got to lose
Cherie at once, for he positively will not go without her. Of course,
it would be a thousand pities for him to throw it up, such an opening;
so very much better than he would ever have here, but it is hard to
lose my child--she seems a child to me still--almost before I have
realised that she is grown up. Their passages are taken already; they
will be married by license almost directly; there even won't be time
to get a trousseau, only the merest necessaries before the luggage has
to go."

It must not be thought that the news of Mr. Harding's engagement was
the one and only thing which convinced Mrs. Polkington and Cherie that
the great campaign had failed; it was the finishing touch, no doubt,
in that it had made Cherie feel the necessity of being immediately
engaged to some one, but there were other things at work. Captain
Polkington had returned from London just five days before they heard
the news, and three were quite sufficient to show his wife and
daughter that he was considerably the worse for his stay in town.
Bills too, had been coming in of late; not inoffensive, negligible
bills such as they were very well used to, but threatening insistent
bills, one even accompanied by a lawyer's letter. Then, to crown all,
Captain Polkington had a fit of virtue and repentance on the second
day after his return. It was not of long duration, and was, no doubt,
partly physical, and not unconnected with the effects of his decline
from the paths of temperance. But while it lasted, he read some of the
bills and talked a