“I am happy to hear it. But it begins to seem as if you won’t have the doubtful comfort of her society for much longer.”

“My dear, if you are going to suggest that I should employ a second lady to keep me company, I do beg of you to spare your breath!”

“No, that wouldn’t answer.” He paused, and then said quite coolly: “I am thinking of getting married, Mama.”

She was taken so much by surprise that she could only stare at him. He had the reputation of being a dangerous flirt, but she had almost given up hope of his coming to the point of offering for any lady’s hand in matrimony. She had reason to think that he had had more than one mistress in keeping—very expensive Cythereans some of them had been if her sister were to be believed!—and it had begun to seem as if he preferred that way of life to a more ordered existence. Recovering from her stupefaction, she said: “My dear, this is very sudden!”

“Not so sudden as you think, Mama. I have been meaning for some time to speak to you about it.”

“Good gracious! And I never suspected it! Do, pray, sit down and tell me all about it!”

He looked at her keenly. “Would you be glad, Mama?”

“Of course I should!”

“Then I think that settles it.”

That made her laugh. “Of all the absurd things to say! Very well! having won my approval, tell me everything!”

He said, gazing frowningly into the fire: “I don’t know that there’s so much to tell you. I fancy you guessed I haven’t much cared for the notion of becoming riveted. I never met the female to whom I wished to be leg-shackled. Harry did, and if anything had been needed to confirm me in—”

“My dear, leave that!” she interposed. “Harry was happy in his marriage, remember! I believe, too, that although Ianthe’s feelings are not profound she was most sincerely attached to him.”