ng your daughters. And, as to this particular marriage, there's
so very much to be said on both sides. And I admit to you, Shotover, if
there's anything I hate it's a case where there's very much to be said
on both sides. It trips you up, you see, at every turn. Then I feel I
was not fairly treated. I don't wish to be hard on your brother Ludovic
and your sisters, but they sprung it upon me, and I am not quick in
argument, never was quick, if I am hurried. Never can be certain of my
own mind when I am hurried--was not certain of it when Lady Calmady
proposed that the marriage should be at Brockhurst. And so I gave way.
Must be accommodating to a woman, you know. Always have been
accommodating to women--got myself into uncommonly tight places by
being so more than once when I was younger----"

Here the speaker cheered up visibly, contemplating his favourite son
with an air at once humorous and contrite.

"You're well out of it, you know, Shotover, with no ties," he
continued, "at least, I mean, with no wife and family. Not that I don't
consider every man owning property should marry sooner or later. More
respectable if you've got property to marry, roots you in the soil,
gives you a stake, you know, in the future of the country. But I'd let
it be later--yes, thinking of marriageable daughters, certainly I'd let
it be later."

From which it may be gathered that Richard's demands were conceded at
all points. And this last concession involved many preparations at
Brockhurst, to effect which Lady Calmady left London with the bulk of
the household about the middle of July, while Richard remained in
Lowndes Square and the neighbourhood of his little _fiancee_--in
company with a few servants and many brown holland covers--till such
time as that young lady should also depart to the country. It was just
now that Lady Louisa Barking gave her annual ball, always one of the
latest, and this year one of the smartest, festivities of the season.

"I mean it to be exceedingly well done," she said to her sister Alicia.
"And Mr. Barking entirely agrees with me. I feel I owe it not only to
myself, but to the rest of the family to show that none of us see
anything extraordinary in Connie's marriage, and that whatever
Shotover's debts may have been, or may be, they are really no concern
at all of ours."

In obedience to which laudable determination the handsome mansion in
Albert Gate opened wide its portals, and all London--a far from