certainly very splendid. Sir Florian was a young man about eight and
twenty, very handsome, of immense wealth, quite unencumbered, moving in
the best circles, popular, so far prudent that he never risked his fortune
on the turf or in gambling-houses, with the reputation of a gallant
soldier, and a most devoted lover. There were two facts concerning him
which might, or might not, be taken as objections. He was vicious, and--he
was dying. When a friend, intending to be kind, hinted the latter
circumstance to Lady Linlithgow, the countess blinked and winked and
nodded, and then swore that she had procured medical advice on the
subject. Medical advice declared that Sir Florian was not more likely to
die than another man--if only he would get married; all of which statement
on her ladyship's part was a lie. When the same friend hinted the same
thing to Lizzie herself, Lizzie resolved that she would have her revenge
upon that friend. At any rate the courtship went on.

We have said that Sir Florian was vicious; but he was not altogether a bad
man, nor was he vicious in the common sense of the word. He was one who
denied himself no pleasure let the cost be what it might in health,
pocket, or morals. Of sin or wickedness he had probably no distinct idea.
In virtue, as an attribute of the world around him, he had no belief. Of
honour he thought very much, and had conceived a somewhat noble idea that
because much had been given to him much was demanded of him. He was
haughty, polite, and very generous. There was almost a nobility even about
his vices. And he had a special gallantry of which it is hard to say
whether it is or is not to be admired. They told him that he was like to
die--very like to die, if he did not change his manner of living. Would he
go to Algiers for a period? Certainly not. He would do no such thing. If
he died, there was his brother John left to succeed him. And the fear of
death never cast a cloud over that grandly beautiful brow. They had all
been short-lived--the Eustaces. Consumption had swept a hecatomb of