n
regard to all his own wants, for his cousin had simply imagined those
debts with which ladies are apt to believe that young men of pleasure
must be overwhelmed. He had gradually taught himself to think that his
own luxuries and his own comforts should in his own estimation be
paramount to everything. He was not naturally selfish, but his life had
almost necessarily engendered selfishness. Marrying had come to be
looked upon as an evil,--as had old age;--not of course an unavoidable
evil, but one into which a man will probably fall sooner or later. To
put off marriage as long as possible, and when it could no longer be
put off to marry money was a part of his creed. In the meantime the
great delight of his life came from women's society. He neither gambled
nor drank. He hunted and fished, and shot deer and grouse, and
occasionally drove a coach to Windsor. But little love affairs,
flirtation, and intrigues, which were never intended to be guilty, but
which now and again had brought him into some trouble, gave its charm
to his life. On such occasions he would too, at times, be very badly in
love, assuring himself sometimes with absolute heroism that he would
never again see this married woman, or declaring to himself in moments
of self-sacrificial grandness that he would at once marry that
unmarried girl. And then, when he had escaped from some especial
trouble, he would take to his regiment for a month, swearing to himself
that for the next year he would see no women besides his aunts and his
grandmother. When making this resolution he might have added his cousin
Adelaide. They were close friends, but between them there had never
been the slightest spark of a flirtation.

In spite of all his little troubles Captain De Baron was a very popular
man. There was a theory abroad about him that he always behaved like a
gentleman, and that his troubles were misfortunes rather than faults.
Ladies always liked him, and his society was agreeable to men because
he was neither selfish nor loud. He talked only a little, but still
enough not to be thought dull. He never bragged or bullied or bounced.
He didn't want to shoot more deer or catch more salmon than another
man. He never cut a fellow down in the hunting-field. He never borrowed
money, but would sometimes lend it when a reason was given. He was
probably as ignorant as an owl of anything really pertaining to
literature, but he did not display his ignorance. He was regarded by