till twelve
calendar months after such inquiry, that time being full short enough to
study the character of one thus palpably worldly-minded and selfish."

A few cautions as to the snares and pitfalls of the world followed,
and the document finished with the testator's name, and that of three
witnesses in pencil, the words "if they consent," being added in ink,
after them.

"Twice fifteen make thirty--thirty thousand pounds--a very neat sum
for a great many things, and yielding, even in its dormant state, about
fifteen hundred a year. What can one do for that? Live, certainly--live
pleasantly, jovially, if a man were a bachelor. At Paris, for instance,
with one's pleasant little entresol in the Rue Neuve, or the Rue
Faubourg St Honore, and his club, and his saddle-horses, with even
ordinary luck at billiards, he could make the two ends meet very
satisfactorily. Then, Baden always pays its way, and the sea-side places
also do, for the world is an excellent world to the fellow who travels
with his courier, and only begs to be plucked a little by the fingers
that wear large diamonds.

"But all these enchantments vanish when it becomes a question of a wife.
A wife means regular habits and respectability. The two most costly
things I know of. Your scampish single-handed valet, who is out all day
on his own affairs, and only turns up at all at some noted time in your
habits, is not one tenth as dear as that old creature with the powdered
head and the poultice of cravat round his neck, who only bows when the
dinner is served, and grows apoplectic if he draws a cork.

"It's the same in everything! Your house must be taken, not because
it is convenient or that you like it, but because your wife can put a
pretentious address on her card. It must be something to which you can
tag Berkeley Square, or Belgravia. In a word, a wife is a mistake, and,
what is worse, a mistake out of which there is no issue."

Thus reasoning and reflecting--now, speculating on what he should
feel--now, imagining what "the world" would say--he again sat down, and
once more read Over Mr. Walter's last will and testament.

CHAPTER VI. SOPHY'S LETTER.

IN something over a week the post brought two letters for the
fellow-travellers. Loyd's was from his mother--a very homely affair,
full of affection and love, and overflowing with those little details
of domestic matters so dear to those who live in the small world of home
and its attachments.