years; the doctors called it consumption; but it was more like a wasting
insensibly away, and consumption never had been in her family. No luck
ever attends runaway marriages; I have noticed it since, in many, many
instances; something bad is sure to turn up from it."

"There might have been a settlement executed after the marriage,"
observed Mr. Carlyle, for the earl had stopped, and seemed lost in
thought.

"I know there might; but there was not. My wife had possessed no
fortune; I was already deep in my career of extravagance, and neither
of us thought of making provision for our future children; or, if we
thought of it, we did not do it. There is an old saying, Mr. Carlyle,
that what may be done at any time is never done."

Mr. Carlyle bowed.

"So my child is portionless," resumed the earl, with a suppressed sigh.
"The thought that it may be an embarrassing thing for her, were I to die
before she is settled in life, crosses my mind when I am in a serious
mood. That she will marry well, there is little doubt, for she possesses
beauty in a rare degree, and has been reared as an English girl should
be, not to frivolity and foppery. She was trained by her mother, who
save for the mad act she was persuaded into by me, was all goodness and
refinement, for the first twelve years of her life, and since then by
an admirable governess. No fear that she will be decamping to Gretna
Green."

"She was a very lovely child," observed the lawyer; "I remember that."