lighting a cigarette.

'Lucky devil, Peter Nevison. Meets an heiress on a Channel boat, with
4,000_l_. a year; and there he is.' Logan basked in the reflected
sunshine.

'Cut by her people, though--and other people. I could not have faced the
row with her people,' said Merton musingly.

'I don't wonder they moved heaven and earth, and her uncle, the bishop,
to stop it. Not eligible, Peter was not, however you took him,' Logan
reflected. 'Took too much of this,' he pointed to the heraldic flask.

'Well, _she_ took him. It is not much that parents, still less
guardians, can do now, when a girl's mind is made up.'

'The emancipation of woman is the opportunity of the indigent male
struggler. Women have their way,' Logan reflected.

'And the youth of the modern aged is the opportunity of our sisters, the
girls "on the make,"' said Merton. 'What a lot of old men of title are
marrying young women as hard up as we are!'

'And then,' said Logan, 'the offspring of the deceased marchionesses make
a fuss. In fact marriage is always the signal for a family row.'

'It is the infernal family row that I never could face. I had a chance--'

Merton seemed likely to drop into autobiography.