. Choose her
carefully, and I'm prepared to prove my words."

"If she'll have you."

"That's the point. I maintain that neither orthodoxy of life nor conduct
weigh with women as long as the suitor has the qualifications I have
mentioned. Now it is believed, rightly or wrongly, that I am going to
have what is commonly called a brilliant career. Well, choose your most
pattern young woman--she must be what is called a lady, of course, and
I must stipulate that she is passably good-looking and is not
penniless."

"And then?"

"I am prepared to put my views to the test. Of course, model young men
like you would not think of a wager; but if I don't succeed--well, I'll
give a hundred pounds to any religious cause you like to mention."

The man's eyes flashed with a new light. The plan he had sketched seemed
to amuse and excite him.

"It's all nonsense," said Sprague.

"Test it," laughed Leicester.

He had apparently imbued the others with his own spirit. For the moment
they were eager to see what would happen.

"Name your woman," went on Leicester. "What, are you afraid? Will you
not support your doctrine of the nobility of women? I give it as my
opinion that women are uniformly selfish, vain, and sordid. I maintain
that what they want is a man who will give them position, name,
prominence. Given that, and everything goes by the board. And I stand by
it. I place a hundred pounds upon it. All I ask you to do is to name
your woman."

There was a wild gleam in his eye, and he was evidently prepared to
stand by his words. As for the others, they yielded more and more to his
stronger personality.

"No," said Sprague presently, "it is not fair. If either of us had a
sister we would not like to make her the subject of such a proposition."

"But if you are right, my dear, good friends," went on Leicester, "no
harm can be done. I propose to the lady, and I am refused. What then? It
is only another illustration of the downfall of Radford Leicester, the
atheist, the cynic, the drunkard. But I am willing to risk it. All I say
is, name the woman. Let her be the best you can think of; let her be the
most exemplary, the most high-minded, the most orthodox, and I maintain
that she'll not care a fig about all my failings, if she believes in the
brilliance of my career."

"If you hadn't drunk so much whisky you'd not propose such a thing,"
said Purvis.

"Oh, you are backing out, are you?" sneered Leicester. "It is always the