ounger than I am, and there need be no settlement
out of my property. That is the great thing. Don't you think
she's--nice?"

"She is very lovely."

"And clever?"

"Certainly very clever. I hope she is not self-willed, Frederic."

"If she is, we must try and balance it," said Lord Fawn, with a
little smile. But, in truth, he had thought nothing about any such
quality as that to which his mother now referred. The lady had an
income. That was the first and most indispensable consideration. She
was fairly well-born, was a lady, and was beautiful. In doing Lord
Fawn justice, we must allow that, in all his attempted matrimonial
speculations, some amount of feminine loveliness had been combined
with feminine wealth. He had for two years been a suitor of Violet
Effingham, who was the acknowledged beauty of the day,--of Violet
Effingham who, at the present time, was the wife of Lord Chiltern;
and he had offered himself thrice to Madame Max Goesler, who was
reputed to be as rich as she was beautiful. In either case, the
fortune would have been greater than that which he would now win, and
the money would certainly have been for ever. But in these attempts
he had failed; and Lord Fawn was not a man to think himself ill-used
because he did not get the first good thing for which he asked.

"I suppose I may tell the girls?" said Lady Fawn.

"Yes;--when I am gone. I must be off now, only I could not bear not
to come and see you."

"It was so like you, Frederic."

"And you'll go to-day?"

"Yes; if you wish it,--certainly."

"Go up in the carriage, you know, and take one of the girls with you.
I would not take more than one. Augusta will be the best. You'll see
Clara, I suppose." Clara was the married sister, Mrs. Hittaway.

"If you wish it."

"She had better call too,--say on Thursday. It's quite as well that
it should be known. I sha'n't choose to have more delay than can be
avoided. Well;--I believe that's all."

"I hope she'll be a good wife to you, Frederic."

"I don't see why she shouldn't. Good-bye, mother. Tell the girls I
will see them next Saturday." He didn't see why this woman he was
about to marry should not be a good wife to him! And yet he knew
nothing about her, and had not taken the slightest trouble to make
inquiry. That she was pretty he could see; that she was clever he
could understand; that she lived in Mount Street was a fact; her
parentage was known to him;--that she was the undoubted mistress