rfully sharp
one, to come out well with the world. Forty thousand, and a good-looking
girl--she is n't more--would not satisfy the just expectations of
society, which, with men like myself, are severely exacting."

He had met with a repulse, he could not deny it, and the sense of pain
it inflicted galled him to the quick. To be sure, the thing occurred in
a remote, out-of-the-way spot, where there were no people to discover
or retail the story. It was not as if it chanced in some cognate land of
society where such incidents get immediate currency and form the gossip
of every coterie. Who was ever to hear of what passed in an Irish
country-house? Marion herself indeed might write it--she most probably
would--but to whom?

To some friend as little in the world as herself, and none knew better
than Lord Culduff of how few people the "world" was composed. It was a
defeat, but a defeat that need never be gazetted. And, after all, are
not the worst things in all our reverses, the comments that are passed
upon them? Are not the censures of our enemies and the condolences of
our friends sometimes harder to bear than the misfortunes that have
evoked them?

What Marion's manner towards him might be in future, was also a painful
reflection. It would naturally be a triumphant incident in her life
to have rejected such an offer. Would she be eager to parade this fact
before the world? Would she try to let people know that she had refused
him? This was possible. He felt that such a slight would tarnish the
whole glory of his life, whose boast was to have done many things that
were actually wicked, but not one that was merely weak.

The imminent matter was to get out of his present situation without
defeat. To quit the field, but not as a beaten army; and revolving how
this was to be done he sunk off to sleep.

CHAPTER XVII. AT CASTELLO.

A private letter from a friend had told Jack Bramleigh that his father's
opposition to the Government had considerably damaged his chance of
being employed, but that he possibly might get a small command on the
African station. With what joy then did he receive the "official,"
marked on H.M.'s service, informing him that he was appointed to the
"Sneezer" despatch gunboat, to serve in the Mediterranean, and enjoining
him to repair to town without unnecessary delay, to receive further
orders.

He had forborne, as we have seen, to tell Julia his former tidings. They
were not indeed of a n