ldn't dare do that, but I do believe she
means it. I wonder where she expects to go to!"

"That's grateful on your part."

"Upon my soul I hate her. I do indeed. It isn't love for me now so
much as downright malice against Palliser, because he baulked her
project before. She is a wicked old woman. Some of us fellows are
wicked enough--you and I for instance--"

"Thank you. I don't know, however, that I am qualified to run in a
curricle with you."

"But we are angels to such an old she-devil as that. You may believe
me or not, as you like.--I dare say you won't believe me."

"I'll say I do, at any rate."

"The truth is, I want to get her, partly because I love her; but
chiefly because I do believe in my heart that she loves me."

"It's for her sake then! You are ready to sacrifice yourself to do
her a good turn."

"As for sacrificing myself, that's done. I'm a man utterly ruined
and would cut my throat to-morrow for the sake of my relations, if I
cared enough about them. I know my own condition pretty well. I have
made a shipwreck of everything, and have now only got to go down
among the breakers."

"Only you would like to take Lady Glencora with you."

"No, by heavens! But sometimes, when I do think about it at
all,--which I do as seldom as I can,--it seems to me that I might
still become a different fellow if it were possible for me to marry
her."

"Had you married her when she was free to marry any one and when her
money was her own, it might have been so."

"I think it would be quite as much so now. I do, indeed. If I could
get her once, say to Italy, or perhaps to Greece, I think I could
treat her well, and live with her quietly. I know that I would try."

"Without the assistance of brandy and cigars."

"Yes."

"And without any money."

"With only a little. I know you'll laugh at me; but I make pictures
to myself of a sort of life which I think would suit us, and be very
different from this hideous way of living, with which I have become
so sick that I loathe it."

"Something like Juan and Haidee, with Planty Pall coming after you,
like old Lambro." By the nickname of Planty Pall George Vavasor
intended to designate Lady Glencora's present husband.

"He'd get a divorce, of course, and then we should be married. I
really don't think he'd dislike it, when it was all done. They tell
me he doesn't care for her."

"You have seen her since her marriage?"

"Yes; twice."

"And have spoken to he