The sooner
the marriage comes off, the better. I shall never be safe till the knot is
tied; and then duty, honour, feeling, and a dozen other motives, will hold
me to the right course."
He strolled back to his party only; a little time before the horses were
put in, and on this occasion went straight to the phaeton, and devoted
himself to Lady Laura.
"You are going to drive me home, of course?" he said. "I mean to claim my
place."
"I hardly think you have any right to it, after your desertion of me. You
have been flirting with those girls in the landau all day."
"Flirting is one of the melancholy privileges of my condition. An engaged
man enjoys an immunity in that matter. When a criminal is condemned to
death, they give him whatever he likes to eat, you know. It is almost the
same kind of thing."
He took his place in the phaeton presently, and talked gaily enough all the
way home, in that particular strain required to match my lady's agreeable
rattle; but he had a vague sense of uneasiness lurking somewhere in his
mind, a half-consciousness that he was drifting the wrong way.
All that evening he was especially attentive to Lady Geraldine, whose
headache had left her with a pale and pensive look which was not without
its charm. The stately beauty had a softer air, the brightness of the blue
eyes was not so cold as it was wont to be. They played chess again, and Mr.
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