d mightily.

"And what will you do," said Mike, "if you don't settle with Thigh?"

"Perhaps my man will be able to pick up another advertisement or two;
perhaps your articles may send up the circulation. One thing is
certain, things can't go on as they are; at this rate I shall not be
able to carry the paper on another six months."

The conversation fell, and Mike remembered the letter in his side
pocket; it lay just over his heart. Frank's monetary difficulties had
affected his matrimonial aspirations. "For if the paper 'bursts up'
how shall I live, much less support a wife? Live! I shall always be
able to live, but to support a wife is quite another matter. Perhaps
Lily has some money. If she had five hundred a year I would marry
her; but I don't know if she has a penny. She must have some, a few
thousands--enough to pay the first expenses. To get a house and get
into the house would cost a thousand." A cloud passed over his face.
The householder, the payer of rates and taxes which the thought
evoked, jarred and caricatured the ideal, the ideal Mike Fletcher,
which in more or less consistent form was always present in his mind.
He who had always received, would have to make presents. The
engagement ring would cost five-and-twenty pounds, and where was he
to get the money? The ring he would have to buy at once; and his
entire fortune did not for the moment amount to ten pounds. Her
money, if she had any, would pay for the honeymoon; and it was only
right that a woman should pay for her honeymoon. They would go to
Italy. She was Italy! At least she was his idea of Italy. Italy! he
had never been there; he had always intended to keep Italy for his
wedding tour. He was virgin of Italy. So much virginity he had at all
events kept for his wife. She was the emblem and symbol of Italy.

Venice rose into his eyes. He is in a gondola with her; the water is
dark with architrave and pillar; and a half moon floats in a
boundless sky But remembering that this is the Venice of a hundred
"chromos," his imagination filled the well-known water-way with
sunlight and maskers, creating the carnival upon the Grand Canal.
Laughing and mocking Loves; young nobles in blue hose, sword on
thigh, as in Shakespeare's plays; young brides in tumultuous satin,
with collars of translucent pearls; garlands reflected in the water;
scarves thrown about the ample bosoms of patrician matrons. Then the
brides, the nobles, the pearls, the loves, and the