error. But a friend
had kindly intervened. "For heaven's sake, my dear, don't let him
take you anywhere beyond Eccleston Square!" had been exclaimed to her
in dismay by a faithful married friend. Thus warned, Alexandrina had
been firm, and now their tent was to be pitched in Princess Royal
Crescent, from one end of which the Hyde Park may be seen.

The furniture had been ordered chiefly under the inspection, and by
the experience, of the Lady Amelia. Crosbie had satisfied himself
by declaring that she at any rate could get the things cheaper than
he could buy them, and that he had no taste for such employment.
Nevertheless, he had felt that he was being made subject to tyranny
and brought under the thumb of subjection. He could not go cordially
into this matter of beds and chairs, and, therefore, at last deputed
the whole matter to the de Courcy faction. And for this there was
another reason, not hitherto mentioned. Mr Mortimer Gazebee was
finding the money with which all the furniture was being bought.
He, with an honest but almost unintelligible zeal for the de Courcy
family, had tied up every shilling on which he could lay his hand as
belonging to Crosbie, in the interest of Lady Alexandrina. He had
gone to work for her, scraping here and arranging there, strapping
the new husband down upon the grindstone of his matrimonial
settlement, as though the future bread of his, Gazebee's, own
children were dependent on the validity of his legal workmanship.
And for this he was not to receive a penny, or gain any advantage,
immediate or ulterior. It came from his zeal,--his zeal for the
coronet which Lord de Courcy wore. According to his mind an earl and
an earl's belongings were entitled to such zeal. It was the theory
in which he had been educated, and amounted to a worship which,
unconsciously, he practised. Personally, he disliked Lord de Courcy,
who ill-treated him. He knew that the earl was a heartless, cruel,
bad man. But as an earl he was entitled to an amount of service which
no commoner could have commanded from Mr Gazebee. Mr Gazebee, having
thus tied up all the available funds in favour of Lady Alexandrina's
seemingly expected widowhood, was himself providing the money with
which the new house was to be furnished. "You can pay me a hundred
and fifty a year with four per cent. till it is liquidated," he had
said to Crosbie; and Crosbie had assented with a grunt. Hitherto,
though he had lived in London expensively