required to do anything,
whether they were rich or poor. Let them be ever so poor, the
disgrace of poverty did not fall upon them as it did upon men. But
then, if they would run their heads into trouble, trouble came harder
upon them than on men; and for that they had nobody to blame but
themselves. Of course it was a very nice thing to be in love. Verses
and pretty speeches and easy-spoken romance were pleasant enough in
their way. Parson John had no doubt tried them himself in early life,
and had found how far they were efficacious for his own happiness.
But young women were so apt to want too much of the excitement! A
young man at Bullhampton was not enough without another young man at
Loring. That, we fear, was the mode in which Parson John looked at
the subject,--which mode of looking at it, had he ever ventured to
explain it to Mary Lowther, would have brought down upon his head
from that young woman an amount of indignant scorn which would have
been very disagreeable to Parson John. But then he was a great deal
too wise to open his mind on such a subject to Mary Lowther.

"I think, sir, I'd better go up and see Curling again next week,"
said the Captain.

"I dare say. Is anything not going right?"

"I suppose I shall get the money, but I shall like to know when. I am
very anxious, of course, to fix a day for my marriage."

"I should not be over quick about that, if I were you," said Parson
John.

"Why not? Situated as I am, I must be quick. I must make up my mind
at any rate where we're to live."

"You'll go back to your regiment, I suppose, next month?"

"Yes, sir. I shall go back to my regiment next month, unless we may
make up our minds to go out to India."

"What, you and Mary?"

"Yes, I and Mary."

"As man and wife?" said Parson John, with a smile.

"How else should we go?"

"Well, no. If she goes with you, she must go as Mrs. Captain
Marrable, of course. But if I were you, I would not think of anything
so horrible."

"It would be horrible," said Walter Marrable.

"I should think it would. India may be very well when a man is quite
young, and if he can keep himself from beer and wine; but to go back
there at your time of life with a wife, and to look forward to a
dozen children there, must be an unpleasant prospect, I should say."

Walter Marrable sat silent and black.

"I should give up all idea of India," continued his uncle.

"What the deuce is a man to do?" asked the Captain.

Th