Part 29

"I should be sorry if I did not," was the cool reply; "and you must be more of a fool, Fred, than I took you for, if you cannot see that Florence Aspeden is worth all the heiresses upon earth, and is the embodiment of all that is lovely and winning in woman----"

"No doubt of it, _tout cela saute aux yeux_," I answered. "But reflect, Fane; it would be utter madness in _you_ to marry anything but an heiress. Love in a cottage is not _your_ style. _You_ were not made for a small house, one maid-servant, and dinner----"

"Ah!" laughed Fane, "you are bringing my former nonsense against me. Some would say I was committing worse folly now, but believe me, Fred, the folly even of the heart is better than the calculating wisdom of the world. I do not hesitate to say that if Florence had fortune I should prefer it, for such a _vaurien_ as I was made to spend money; but as she has not, I love her too dearly to think about it, and my father, I have no doubt, will soon get me my majority, and we shall get on stunningly. So marry for _love_, Fred, if you take my advice."

"A _rather_ different opinion to that which you inculcated so strenuously a month ago," I observed, smiling; "but let me congratulate you, old fellow, with all my heart. 'Pon my word, I am very glad, for I always felt afraid you would, like Morvillier's _garcon_, resist all the attractions of a woman until the '_cent mille ecus_,' and then, without hesitation, declare, '_J'epouse_.' But you were too good to be spoiled."

"As for my goodness, there's not much of _that_," replied Fane; "I am afraid I am much better off than I deserve. I wrote to the governor last night: dear old boy! he will do anything _I_ ask him. By the by, Mary will be married soon too. I hope you are not _epris_ in that quarter, Fred?--pray do not faint if you are. _My_ Florence, who can do anything she likes with anybody (do you think any one _could_ be angry with _her_?) coaxed old Aspeden into consenting to Mary's marriage with a fellow she really is in love with--Graham, a barrister. I think she would have had more difficulty with the lady-mother, if a letter had not most opportunely come from Graham this morning, announcing the agreeable fact that he had lots of tin left him unexpectedly. I wish somebody would do the same by me. And so this Graham will fly down on the wings of love--represented in these days by the express train--to-morrow evening."

"And how about the foreign service, Fane?" I could not help asking. "And do you intend going to London to-morrow?"

"I made those two resolutions under very different circumstances to the _present_, my dear fellow," laughed Fane: "the first, when I determined to cut away from Florence altogether, as the only chance of forgetting her; sad the second, when I thought poor Mount was an accepted lover, and I confess that I did not feel to have stoicism enough to witness his happiness. But how absurd it seems that _I_ should have fallen in love," continued he; "_I_, that defied the charms of all the Venuses upon earth--the last person any one would have taken for a marrying man. I am considerably astonished myself! But I suppose love is like the whooping-cough, one must have it some time or other." And with these words the gallant captain raised himself from the sofa, lighted a cigar, and, strolling out of the room, mounted his horse for Woodlands, where he was engaged of course to dinner that evening.

And now, gentle reader, what more is there to tell? I fear as it is I have written too "much about nothing," and as thou hast, I doubt not, a fine imagination, what need to tell how Lord Avanley and Mr. Aspeden arranged matters, not like the cross papas in books and dramas, but amicably, as gentlemen should; how merrily the bells pealed for the double wedding; how I, as _garcon d'honneur_, flirted with the bridesmaids to my heart's content; how Fane is my friend, _par excellence_, still, and how his love is all the stronger for having "come late," he says. How all the young ladies hated Florence, and all the mammas and chaperones blessed her for having carried off the "fascinating younger son," until his brother Lord Castleton dying at the baths, Fane succeeded of course to the title; how she is, if possible, even more charming as Lady Castleton than as Florence Aspeden, and how they were _really_ heart-happy until the Crimean campaign separated them; and how she turns her beautiful eyes ever to the East and heeds not, save to repulse, the crowd of admirers who seek to render her forgetful of her soldier-husband.

True wife as she is, may he live to come back with laurels hardly won, still to hold her his dearest treasure.

_May 1, 1856._--Fane _has_ come back all safe. I hope, dear reader, you are as glad as I am. He has distinguished himself stunningly, and is now lieutenant-colonel of the dear old 110th. You have gloried in the charge of ours at Balaklava, but as I have not whispered to you my name, you cannot possibly divine that a rascally Russian gave me a cut on the sword-arm that very day in question, which laid me _hors de combat_, but got me my majority.

Well may I, as well as Fane, bless the remembrance of Layton Rise, for if I had never made the acquaintance of Mary Aspeden--I mean Graham--I might never have known her _belle-soeur_ (who is now shaking her head at me for writing about her), and whom, either through my interesting appearance when I returned home on the sick-list, and my manifold Crimean adventures, or through the usual perversity of women, who will fall always in love with scamps who do not deserve half their goodness--(Edith, you shall _not_ look over my shoulder)--I prevailed on to accept my noble self and Lancer uniform, with the "_puppyism_" shaken pretty well out of it! And so here we are _very happy of course_.--"As yet," suggests Edith.

Ah! Fane and I little knew--poor unhappy wretches that we were--what our fate was preparing for us when it led us discontented _blases_ and _ennuyes_ down to our Country Quarters!

THE CHALLONERS

BY E. F. BENSON

_12mo. Cloth, $1.50._

The theme is a father's concern lest his children become contaminated by what he considers an unwholesome social atmosphere. The book is filled with Mr. Benson's clever observations on the English smart set, and the love-story shows him at his best.

MORGANATIC

BY MAX NORDAU

_12mo. Decorated cloth, $1.50._

This new book by the author of "Degeneration," has many of the qualities which gave its predecessor such a phenomenal sale. It is a study of morganatic marriage, and full of strong situations.

OLIVE LATHAM

By E. L. VOYNICH Author of "Jack Raymond" and "The Gadfly." Cloth, $1.50

"The author's knowledge of this matter has been painfully personal. Her husband, a Polish political refugee, at the age of twenty-two, was arrested and thrown into a vile Russian prison without trial, and spent five years of his life thereafter in Siberian exile, escaping in 1890 and fleeing to England. Throughout 'Olive Latham' you get the impression that it is a veritable record of what one woman went through for love.... This painful, poignant, powerfully-written story permits one full insight into the cruel workings of Russian justice and its effects upon the nature of a well-poised Englishwoman. Olive comes out of the Russian hell alive, and lives to know what happiness is again, but the horror of those days in St. Petersburg, the remembrance of the inhumanity which killed her lover never leaves her.... It rings true. It is a grewsome study of Russian treatment of political offenders. Its theme is not objectionable--a criticism which has been brought against other books of Mrs. Voynich's."--_Chicago Record-Herald._

"So vividly are the coming events made to cast their shadows before, that long before the half-way point is reached the reader knows that Volodya's doom is near at hand, and that the chief interest of the story lies not with him, but with the girl, and more specifically with the curious mental disorders which her long ordeal brings upon her. It is seldom that an author has succeeded in depicting with such grim horror the sufferings of a mind that feels itself slipping over the brink of sanity, and clutches desperately at shadows in the effort to drag itself back."--_New York Globe._

BACCARAT

BY FRANK DANBY AUTHOR OF "PIGS IN CLOVER"

_12 mo. Six illustrations in color. Cloth, $1.50._

The story of a young wife left by her husband at a Continental watering place for a brief summer stay, who, before she is aware, has drifted into the feverish current of a French Monte Carlo.

A dramatic and intense book that stirs the pity. One cannot read "Baccarat" unmoved.

"The finished style and unforgettable story, the living characters, and compact tale of the new book show it to be a work on which care and time have been expended.

"Much more dramatic than her first novel, it possesses in common with it a story of deep and terrible human interest."--_Chicago Tribune._

THE ISSUE

By GEORGE MORGAN

Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50

"Will stand prominently forth as the strongest book that the season has given us. The novel is a brilliant one, and will command wide attention."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger._

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"Po, a sweet, lovable heroine."--_The Milwaukee Sentinel._

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"The best novel of the Civil War that we have had."--_Baltimore Sun._

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.

End of Project Gutenberg's Beatrice Boville and Other Stories, by Ouida