"Of course, you know, I should hardly have ventured to aspire to such an idea quite unassisted. And I believe I said something or other to my lady--very stumblingly, I have no doubt, for I remember feeling very much bewildered. I said some word about my being a poor devil with nothing in the world to offer to a lady in Miss Kilfinane's position--except, of course, my undying devotion. Only one cannot live altogether on that. But Lady Seely was very sanguine, and saw no difficulties. She said it could be managed. And she was right, you see. Where there's a will, there's a way. And I am really to be married to Castalia to-morrow. It seems too good to be true!" Lord Seely rose and faced the young man; and as he did so, his lordship looked really dignified; for the sincere feeling within him had for once obliterated his habitual uneasy self-consciousness. "Ancram," he said, "I am afraid, from what Castalia tells me, that you are greatly dissatisfied with the position I have been able to procure for you." "Oh, my lord, Castalia ought not to have said so! If she can content herself in it for a time, how can I venture to complain?" "I am sorry to find," continued Lord Seely, "that your circumstances are more seriously embarrassed than I thought." "Are they, my lord? I profess I don't know how to disembarrass them!" "You are in debt----" "I had the honour of avowing as much to your lordship when my marriage was first discussed; as you, doubtless, remember?" "Yes; and you named a sum which I----" "Which your lordship was kind enough to pay. Certainly." "But it now appears that that sum did not cover the whole of your liabilities, Ancram. Castalia tells me that you have been annoyed by applications for money quite recently." Algernon smiled, and put his head on one side, as if trying to recall a half-forgotten fact. "Well," said he at length, "upon my word I have forgotten the exact sum which I did name to your lordship, but I have no doubt it was correct at the time. The worst of it is, that my debts have this unfortunate peculiarity--they won't stay paid!" "It is a great pity, Ancram, for a young man to get into the habit of thinking lightly of debt. It is, in fact," continued his lordship, growing graver and graver as he spoke, "a fatal habit of mind." "My dear lord, I don't think lightly of it by any means! But, really--is it not best to accept the inevitable with some cheerfulness?" "'The inevitable,' Ancram?" "Yes, my lord; in my position, debt was inevitable. I could not be a member of your family circle, a frequent inmate of your house, doing the things you did, going where you went, without incurring some expense."