And so you are actually going to marry a
tanner?"

"I am going to marry Mr. Halifax. We will, if you please, cease to
discuss him, Lady Caroline."

"La belle sauvage!" laughed the lady; and, in the dusk, I fancied I saw
her reach over to pat Ursula's hand in her careless, pretty way. "Nay,
I meant no harm."

"I am sure you did not; but we will change the subject."

"Not at all. I came to talk about it. I couldn't sleep till I had. Je
t'aime bien, tu le sais, ma petite Ursule."

"Thank you," said Ursula, gently.

"And I would like well to see you married. Truly we women must marry,
or be nothing at all. But as to marrying for love, as we used to think
of, and as charming poets make believe--my dear, now-a-days, nous avons
change tout cela."

Ursula replied nothing.

"I suppose my friend the young bourgeois is very much in love with you?
With 'les beaux yeux de votre cassette,' Richard swears; but I know
better. What of that? All men say they love one--but it will not
last. It burns itself out. It will be over in a year, as we wives all
know. Do we not, Mrs. Jessop? Ah! she is gone away."

Probably they thought I was away too--or else they took no notice of
me--and went talking on.

"Jane would not have agreed with you, Cousin Caroline; she loved her
husband very dearly when she was a girl. They were poor, and he was
afraid to marry; so he let her go. That was wrong, I think."

"How wise we are growing in these things now!" laughed Lady Caroline.
"But come, I am not interested in old turtle-doves. Say about
yourself."

"I have nothing more to say."

"Nothing more? Mon Dieu! are you aware that Richard is furious; that
he vows he will keep every sou he has of yours--law or no law--for as
long as ever he can? He declared so this morning. Did young Halifax
tell you?"

"Mr. Halifax has told me."

"'MR. Halifax!' how proudly she says it. And are you still going to be
married to him?"

"Yes."

"What! a bourgeois--a tradesman? with no more money than those sort of
people usually have, I believe. You, who have had all sorts of
comforts, have always lived as a gentlewoman. Truly, though I adore a
love-marriage in theory, practically I think you are mad--quite mad, my
dear."

"Do you?"

"And he, too! Verily, what men are! Especially men in love. All
selfish together."

"Caroline!"

"Isn't it selfish to drag a pretty creature down, and make her a
drudge, a slave--a mere poor ma