ut
now--'tis but as it should be, that a man should have straight limbs
and a great body, and a clean-cut countenance. It should be nature--not
a thing to be remarked; it should be mere nature--and the other an
unnatural thing. 'Tis cruel that either man or woman should be weak or
uncomely. All should be as perfect parts of the great universe as are
the mountains and the sun."

"'Tis not so yet," remarked my Lord Marlborough, with his inscrutable
smile. "'Tis not so yet."

"Not yet," said Roxholm. "But let each creature live to make it so--men
that they may be clean and joyous and strong; women that they may be
mates for them. They should be as strong as we, and have as great
courage."

His Lordship smiled again. They were at the Hague at this time and in
his quarters, where he was pleased occasionally to receive the young
officer with a gracious familiarity. For reasons of his own, he wished
to know him well and understand the strengths and weaknesses of his
character. Therefore he led him into talk, and was pleased to find that
he frequently said things worth hearing, though they were often new and
somewhat daring things to be said by one of his age at this period,
when 'twas not the custom for a man to think for himself, but either to
follow the licentious follies of his fellows or accept without question
such statements as his Chaplain made concerning a somewhat unreasoning
Deity, His inflexible laws, and man's duty towards Him. That a handsome
youth, for example, should, in a serious voice and with a thoughtful
face, announce that beauty should be but nature, and ugliness regarded
as a disease, instead of humbly submitted to as the will of God, was,
indeed, a startling heresy and might have been regarded as impious,
even though so gravely said. Therefore it was my Lord Marlborough
smiled.

"I spoke to you of marriage once before," he remarked. "You bring it
back to me. Do you care for women?" bluntly.

Roxholm met his eye with his own straight, cool gaze.

"Yes, my Lord," he answered with some grimness, and said no more.

"The one you wait for has not yet come to Court, as I said that day,"
his Grace went on, and now he was grave again, and had even fallen
into a speculative tone. "But it struck me once that I heard of
her--though she is no fit companion for you yet--and Heaven knows if
she ever will be. The path before her is too full of traps for safety."

Roxholm did not speak. Whether fond of women or