"Oh, well, so much the better," said the doctor, when he heard all. "Capital calming place for your sister at your uncle's. And as for Gertrude--bless her sweet face!--your uncle must be right. Bet a guinea he knew beforehand. I wish her and John Huish joy, he'll never make her leave her home, and drink himself into such a state as this." "I hope not," thought Dick; but just then some of the ugly rumours he had heard crossed his mind, and he had his doubts. "Precious hard on a fellow," he said to himself, "two sisters going off like that! I wonder what Glen and the other fellows will say. Suppose fate forced me to do something of the same kind!" Volume 2, Chapter IX. GOING TO COURT. Marcus Glen was not a man given to deep thinking, but one of those straightforward, trusting fellows who, when once he placed faith in another, gave his whole blind confidence, and whom it was difficult afterwards to shake in his belief. He had had his flirtations here and there where his regiment had been stationed, and fancied himself deeply in love; been jilted in a fashionable way, smoked a cigar over it, and enjoyed his meals at the mess as usual. But he had found in Clotilde one so different to the insipid girls of former acquaintance: she was far more innocent in most things, thoroughly unworldly, and at the same time so full of loving passion, giving herself, as it were, to his arms with a full trust and faith, that his pulses had been thoroughly stirred. She told him of her past, and he soon found out for himself that hers had been no life of seasons, with half a dozen admirers in each. He was her first lover, and he told himself--doubtingly--that she was the first woman, and would be the only one, he could ever love. Their meetings became few and seldom, and were nearly all of a stolen nature, for there could be no disguising the fact that when the young officer called the Honourable Philippa Dymcox was cold and stately; and though her sister seemed to nervously desire to further Glen's wishes, she stood too much in awe of her sister, and with a sigh forebore. Dick Millet then had to put his plan in force, and Joseph began to grow comparatively wealthy with the weight of the Queen's heads that accompanied the notes he bore to the young ladies, and visions of the lodging-house he meant some day to take grew clearer and less hazy in the distance that they had formerly seemed to occupy. Visits were paid to Lady Littletown's, and that dame was quite affectionate in her ways, but Clotilde and Marie were rarely encountered there; and when fortune did favour Glen to the extent of a meeting, there were no more inspections of her ladyship's exotics, no encounters alone, for Lady Littletown was always present; and at last Glen felt that, if he wished to win, it must be by extraordinary, and not by ordinary means. The slightest hint of this seemed to set Dick on fire.