New England it is even more rigid. There, I understand, if a young man
goes home with a young lady on a Sunday evening, it is considered as
good as an engagement; and if, on the next Sunday evening, he goes home
with another young lady, he is looked upon as a fickle-minded miscreant,
capable of ruining a whole town. Little children avoid him, and even
dogs go round the corner at his approach. Now, if this BLINKSOP chooses
to contest this, marriage, I think--mind you, I only _think_--that with
this previous engagement to back his unwillingness to marry you, this
marriage will go for nothing."

Having delivered this legal opinion with an air of profound wisdom, and
the most acute penetration, he leaned back in his chair, crossed his
legs, and regarded his empty glass as with the air of a man whose
fondest hopes in that direction had been ruthlessly crushed. And ANN was
walking the floor thoroughly excited.

"It's just my confounded luck," said she, angrily, "just as I was
counting on galling BELINDA, too. I don't believe," she added after a
pause, "that BLINKSOP'S got spunk enough to contest it."

"Perhaps not; but if he _should_----"

"Well, what shall I do?" she interrupted, impatiently.

The lawyer reached deliberately over the table, and drank the few drops
of wine that remained in ANN'S glass.

"Do," said he, slowly, "just what you were going to do, in the first
place."