even suspected of inventing some of the more improbable. Another fact
tending to the popularity of Joseph Loveredge among all classes, over and
above his amiability, his wit, his genuine kindliness, and his
never-failing fund of good stories, was that by care and inclination he
had succeeded in remaining a bachelor. Many had been the attempts to
capture him; nor with the passing of the years had interest in the sport
shown any sign of diminution. Well over the frailties and distempers so
dangerous to youth, of staid and sober habits, with an ever-increasing
capital invested in sound securities, together with an ever-increasing
income from his pen, with a tastefully furnished house overlooking
Regent's Park, an excellent and devoted cook and house-keeper, and
relatives mostly settled in the Colonies, Joseph Loveredge, though
inexperienced girls might pass him by with a contemptuous sniff, was
recognised by ladies of maturer judgment as a prize not too often dangled
before the eyes of spinsterhood. Old foxes--so we are assured by kind-
hearted country gentlemen--rather enjoy than otherwise a day with the
hounds. However that may be, certain it is that Joseph Loveredge,
confident of himself, one presumes, showed no particular disinclination
to the chase. Perhaps on the whole he preferred the society of his own
sex, with whom he could laugh and jest with more freedom, to whom he
could tell his stories as they came to him without the trouble of having
to turn them over first in his own mind; but, on the other hand, Joey
made no attempt to avoid female company whenever it came his way; and
then no cavalier could render himself more agreeable, more unobtrusively
attentive. Younger men stood by, in envious admiration of the ease with
which in five minutes he would establish himself on terms of cosy
friendship with the brilliant beauty before whose gracious coldness they
had stood shivering for months; the daring with which he would tuck under
his arm, so to speak, the prettiest girl in the room, smooth down as if
by magic her hundred prickles, and tease her out of her overwhelming
sense of her own self-importance. The secret of his success was,
probably, that he was not afraid of them. Desiring nothing from them
beyond companionableness, a reasonable amount of appreciation for his
jokes--which without being exceptionally stupid they would have found it
difficult to withhold--with just sufficient information and intellig