“How I touched the fellow’s patriotism, Bob. It was the Austrian dodge stood us in stead, there. I know that I have jeopardised your esteem for me by the loss of that money last night; but do confess that this was a clever hit of mine.” “It’s a bad business from beginning to end!” was however all that he could obtain from Barnard. “Narrow-minded dog! he won’t see any genius in a man that owes him five shillings.” “I wish it was only five shillings.” “What an ignoble confession! It means this that your friendship depends on the rate of exchanges, and that when gold rises--But here comes Luigi Fillipo. “Now, no squeamishness, but write your name firmly. ‘Cut boldly,’ said the auger, ‘and he cut it through.’ Don’t you remember that classic anecdote in your Roman history?” It is a strange fact that the spirit of raillery, which to a dull man is, at first, but a source of irritation and fretfulness, will, when persevered in, become at last one of the most complete despotisms. He dreads it as a weapon which he cannot defend himself against; and he comes to regard it as an evidence of superiority and power. Barnard saw the dominion that the other exercised over him, but could not resist it. “Where to now?” asked he, as they whirled rapidly along the road towards Monza. “First of all, to Orta. There is an English family I want to see. Two prettier girls you can’t imagine--not that the news has any interest for you, poor caged mouse that you are--but I am in love with one of them. I forget which, but I believe it’s the one that won’t have me.” “She’s right,” said Barnard, with a half smile. “Well, I half suspect she is. I could be a charming lover, but I fear I’d make only a sorry husband. My qualities are too brilliant for every-day use. It is your dreary fellows, with a tiresome monotony of nature, do best in that melancholy mill they call marriage. You, for instance, ought to be a model ‘mari.’” “You are not disposed to give me the chance, I think,” said Barnard, peevishly. “On the contrary, I am preparing you most carefully for your career. Conjugal life is a reformatory. You must come to it as a penitent Now I’ll teach you the first part of your lesson; your wife shall supply the second.” “I’d relish this much better if--” “I had not lost that money, you were going to say. Out with it, man. When a fellow chances upon a witty thing, he has a right to repeat it; besides, you have reason on your side. A loser is always wrong. But after all, Bob, whether the game be war, or marriage, or a horse-race, one’s skill has very little to say to it Make the wisest combinations that ever were fashioned, and you’ll lose sometimes. Draw your card at hazard, and you’ll win. If you only saw the fellow that beat me t’other day in a girl’s affections--as dreary a dog as ever you met in your life, without manliness, without ‘go’ in him--and yet he wasn’t a curate. I know you suspect he was a curate.”