ys
thinking of his money, but Lord Fawn was well aware that a young
woman such as Lady Eustace should have her thoughts elsewhere. As he
sat signing letters at the India Board, relieving himself when he was
left alone between each batch by standing up with his back to the
fire-place, his mind was full of all this. He could not unravel truth
quickly, but he could grasp it when it came to him. She was certainly
greedy, false, and dishonest. And,--worse than all this,--she had
dared to tell him to his face that he was a poor creature because he
would not support her in her greed, and falsehoods, and dishonesty!
Nevertheless, he was engaged to marry her! Then he thought of one
Violet Effingham whom he had loved, and then came over him some
suspicion of a fear that he himself was hard and selfish. And yet
what was such a one as he to do? It was of course necessary for the
maintenance of the very constitution of his country that there should
be future Lord Fawns. There could be no future Lord Fawns unless he
married;--and how could he marry without money? "A peasant can marry
whom he pleases," said Lord Fawn, pressing his hand to his brow, and
dropping one flap of his coat, as he thought of his own high and
perilous destiny, standing with his back to the fire-place, while a
huge pile of letters lay there before him waiting to be signed.

It was a Saturday evening, and as there was no House there was
nothing to hurry him away from the office. He was the occupier for
the time of a large, well-furnished official room, looking out into
St. James's Park, and as he glanced round it he told himself that his
own happiness must be there, and not in the domesticity of a quiet
home. The House of Lords, out of which nobody could turn him, and
official life,--as long as he could hold to it,--must be all in all
to him. He had engaged himself to this woman, and he must--marry
her. He did not think that he could now see any way of avoiding that
event. Her income would supply the needs of her home, and then there
might probably be a continuation of Lord Fawns. The world might have
done better for him,--had he been able to find favour in Violet
Effingham's sight. He was a man capable of love,--and very capable
of constancy to a woman true to him. Then he wiped away a tear as he
sat down to sign the huge batch of letters. As he read some special
letter in which instructions were conveyed as to the insufficiency
of the Sawab's claims, he though