icable by reason of their absurd
position. And as they became gay and free after their luncheon he
expressed almost as much contempt for honesty as for dukes, and
showed clearly that he regarded matrimony and marquises to be equally
vain and useless. "How dare you say such things in our hearing!"
exclaimed Mrs. Carbuncle.

"I assert that if men and women were really true, no vows would be
needed;--and if no vows, then no marriage vows. Do you believe such
vows are kept?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Carbuncle enthusiastically.

"I don't," said Lucinda.

"Nor I," said the Corsair. "Who can believe that a woman will always
love her husband because she swears she will? The oath is false on
the face of it."

"But women must marry," said Lizzie. The Corsair declared freely that
he did not see any such necessity.

And then, though it could hardly be said that this Corsair was a
handsome man, still he had fine Corsair's eyes, full of expression
and determination, eyes that could look love and bloodshed almost
at the same time; and then he had those manly properties,--power,
bigness, and apparent boldness,--which belong to a Corsair. To
be hurried about the world by such a man, treated sometimes with
crushing severity, and at others with the tenderest love, not to be
spoken to for one fortnight, and then to be embraced perpetually for
another, to be cast every now and then into some abyss of despair
by his rashness, and then raised to a pinnacle of human joy by his
courage,--that, thought Lizzie, would be the kind of life which would
suit her poetical temperament. But then, how would it be with her, if
the Corsair were to take to hurrying about the world without carrying
her with him;--and were to do so always at her expense! Perhaps he
might hurry about the world and take somebody else with him. Medora,
if Lizzie remembered rightly, had had no jointure or private fortune.
But yet a woman must risk something if the spirit of poetry is to
be allowed any play at all! "And now these weary diamonds again,"
said Lord George, as the carriage was stopped against the Carlisle
platform. "I suppose they must go into your bedroom, Lady Eustace?"

"I wish you'd let the man put the box in yours;--just for this
night," said Lizzie.

"No;--not if I know it," said Lord George. And then he explained.
Such property would be quite as liable to be stolen when in his
custody as it would in hers;--but if stolen while in his would entail
upon him a