y trumpery sound! Were you never a little
touched?'

'Not I. My heart is in the happy position of a country which has no
history or debt.'

'I suppose I should rejoice to hear it,' said Ladywell. 'But the
consciousness of a fellow-sufferer being in just such another hole is
such a relief always, and softens the sense of one's folly so very much.'

'There's less Christianity in that sentiment than in your confessing to
it, old fellow. I know the truth of it nevertheless, and that's why
married men advise others to marry. Were all the world tied up, the
pleasantly tied ones would be equivalent to those at present free. But
what if your fellow-sufferer is not only in another such a hole, but in
the same one?'

'No, Neigh--never! Don't trifle with a friend who--'

'That is, refused like yourself, as well as in love.'

'Ah, thanks, thanks! It suddenly occurred to me that we might be dead
against one another as rivals, and a friendship of many long--days be
snapped like a--like a reed.'

'No--no--only a jest,' said Neigh, with a strangely accelerated speech.
'Love-making is an ornamental pursuit that matter-of-fact fellows like me
are quite unfit for. A man must have courted at least half-a-dozen women
before he's a match for one; and since triumph lies so far ahead, I shall
keep out of the contest altogether.'

'Your life would be pleasanter if you were engaged. It is a nice thing,
after all.'

'It is. The worst of it would be that, when the time came for breaking
it off, a fellow might get into an action for breach--women are so fond
of that sort of thing now; and I hate love-affairs that don't end
peaceably!'

'But end it by peaceably marrying, my dear fellow!'

'It would seem so singular. Besides, I have a horror of antiquity: and
you see, as long as a man keeps single, he belongs in a measure to the
rising generation, however old he may be; but as soon as he marries and
has children, he belongs to the last generation, however young he may be.
Old Jones's son is a deal younger than young Brown's father, though they
are both the same age.'

'At any rate, honest courtship cures a man of many evils he had no power
to stem before.'

'By substituting an incurable matrimony!'

'Ah--two persons must have a mind for that before it can happen!' said
Ladywell, sorrowfully shaking his head.

'I think you'll find that if one has a mind for it, it will be quite
sufficient. But here we are at my rooms.