"Marian Nowell--a very pretty name! When do you think of going back to
Lidford?"

"In about a month. My brother-in-law wants me to go back to them for the
1st of September."

"Then I think I shall run down to Forster's, and have a pop at the
pheasants. It will give me an opportunity of being presented to Miss
Nowell."

"I shall be very pleased to introduce you, old fellow. I know that you
will admire her."

"Well, I am not a very warm admirer of the sex in general; but I am sure
to like your future wife, Gil, if it is only because you have chosen
her."

"And your own affairs, Jack--how have they been going on?"

"Not very brightly. I am not a lucky individual, you know. Destiny and I
have been at odds ever since I was a schoolboy."

"Not in love yet, John?"

"No," the other answered, with rather a gloomy look.

He was sitting on a corner of the ponderous desk in a lounging attitude,
gazing meditatively at his boots, and hitting one of them now and then
with a cane he carried, in a restless kind of way.