deliberately propose to tie yourself up to a middle-aged and _passee_
woman--she is extremely _passee_ by daylight, let me tell you--who
has already treated you like a dog, and is burdened with a couple of
children, and who, if she marries again, will bring you very little
except her luxurious tastes. But I expected this. I thought she would
try to catch you with those languishing black eyes of hers. You are not
the first; I know her of old."

"If," said his brother, rising in dudgeon, "you are going to abuse
Madeline to me, I think I had better say good night, for we shall
quarrel--which I would not do for anything."

Sir Eustace shrugged his shoulders. "Those whom the gods wish to destroy
they first make mad," he muttered, as he lit his hand candle. "This is
what comes of a course of South Africa."

But Sir Eustace was an amenable man. His favourite motto was "Live and
let live"; and having given the matter his best consideration during the
lengthy process of shaving himself on the following morning, he came to
the conclusion, reluctantly enough it must be owned, that it was evident
that his brother meant to have his own way, and therefore the best thing
to be done was to fall in with his views and trust to the chapter
of accidents to bring the thing to naught. Sir Eustace, for all his
apparent worldliness and cynicism, was a good fellow at heart, and
cherished a warm affection for his awkward, taciturn brother. He
also cherished a great dislike for Lady Croston, whose character he
thoroughly understood. He saw a good deal of her, it is true, because he
happened to be one of the executors of her husband's will; and since he
had come into the baronetcy it had struck him that she had developed a
considerable partiality for his society.