"Why should I?"

"Because he is a magnificent fellow; and I wish my daughter to hold her own
before a man whom I admire so heartily."

"Why, this is the first time you have ever given me worldly advice," she
laughed.

"Only a friendly hint," he answered, rising and putting his book in its
place with the precision of a spinster.



Chapter II

"This is what I call a worldly paradise!" A girl with a face like dear Lady
Disdain's sank into a divan placed near the conservatory; her voice chimed
in prettily with the music of a spraying fountain and the soft strains of
remote stringed instruments.

"Is it a frivolous conceit?" she continued, laughing up to the man who
stood beside her; "or do the soft light of many candles, faint music,
radiant women, and courtly men, satisfy your predilections also that such a
place is as near heaven as this wicked world approaches?"

"You forget; paradise was occupied by but two. To my notion, nothing can
be farther removed from Elysium than a modern drawing-room full of guests."

"And leaving out the guests?"