"Is there any one you envy,--whose choice, other than your own, you would
prefer?"

"Certainly."

"Who?"

"You."

"I!" said Darrell, opening his eyes with unaffected amaze. "I! envy me!
prefer my choice!"

COLONEL MORLEY (peevishly).--"Without doubt. You have had gratified
ambition, a great career. Envy you! who would not? Your own objects in
life fulfilled: you coveted distinction,--you won it; fortune,--your
wealth is immense; the restoration of your name and lineage from
obscurity and humiliation,--are not name and lineage again written in the
/Libro d'oro/? What king would not hail you as his counsellor?
What senate not open its ranks to admit you as a chief? What house,
though the haughtiest in the land, would not accept your alliance? And
withal, you stand before me stalwart and unbowed, young blood still in
your veins. Ungrateful man, who would not change lots with Guy Darrell?
Fame, fortune, health, and, not to flatter you, a form and presence that
would be remarked, though you stood in that black frock by the side of a
monarch in his coronation robes."

DARRELL.--"You have turned my question against myself with a kindliness
of intention that makes me forgive your belief in my vanity. Pass on,
--or rather pass back; you say you have tried all in life that distracts
or sweetens. Not so, lone bachelor; you have not tried wedlock. Has not