nish. And, if the marriage would be for him
a great material benefit, he hoped that May also might profit by it.

Lady Ogram desired their union, that was clear. That she should have
made choice of _him_, was not easy to explain, for surely she might
have wedded her niece more advantageously. But then, Lady Ogram was no
mere intriguer; he thought her, on the whole, a woman of fine
character, with certain defects so obvious that they could never be the
means of misleading anyone. She was acting, undoubtedly, in what she
deemed the best interests of her young relative--and _he_ could hardly
accuse her of having made a mistake.

Pacing the room, he took up a review, opened at a philosophical
article, and tried to read.

"Why does man exist? Why does _anything_ exist? Manifestly because the
operations of the energies of nature, under the particular group of
conditions, compel it, just in the same way that they cause everything
else to happen."

He paused, and re-read the passage. Was it satire or burlesque? No, he
saw that the writer meant it for a serious contribution to human
knowledge. In disgust he flung the periodical aside. This was the kind
of stuff that people feed upon nowadays, a result of the craze for
quasi-scientific phraseology, for sonorous explanations of the
inexplicable. Why does man exist, forsooth!--To guard his lips against
the utterances of foolishness, and to be of what use in the world he
may.

Before mid-day on the morrow, he would offer May Tomalin his heart and
hand, offer both with glad sincerity, disregarding all else but the
fact that to this point had destiny brought him.

He thought of her humble origin, and rejoiced in it. His own family
history was an illustration of how a once genuinely noble house might
fall into decay if not renewed by alliances with more vigorous blood.
May Tomalin had perfect health: she represented generations of hardy,
simple folk, their energy of late recruited in the large air of Canada.
Why, had he gone forth deliberately to seek the kind of wife best
suited to him, he could not have done better than chance had done for
him in his indolent shirking existence. If he had children, they might
be robust and comely. In May's immediate connections, there was nothing
to cause embarrassment; as to her breeding it would compare more than
favourably with that of many high-born young ladies whom Society
delights to honour. Of such young ladies he had always thought wi