"I am happy to say that I have no prospects in particular. Never had such things in my life." "Nor any present necessities?" "Ah! now you touch me on a tender point." "How can I be of service to you? Is there anything I can do for you in a modest way?" "Well--you may invite me to dinner if you like." "That I'll do willingly. I suppose if the dinner were supplemented with an offer of a five-pound note you would not feel offended." "Offended! Not a bit of it," said Gerald, with a laugh. "But remember this, Kelvin, I have not asked you for money." "Oh, I fully appreciate your delicacy of feeling," answered Kelvin, not without a sneer. "Well, we dine at six sharp. No company, only my mother and my cousin." Gerald rose and took up his hat. "I suppose you would find it somewhat difficult," said Kelvin, "after vagabondising about the world for so long a time, to settle down to any quiet steady employment--too monotonous, and that sort of thing--eh?" "I don't know so much about that," said Gerald. "Certainly liberty is sweet, and it is pleasant to be one's own master. Besides which, as yet I have given no hostages to fortune, and having only my own unworthy self to look after, I dare say that I should find it difficult to settle down into a steady, sober, tax-paying citizen, who sits on a stool from one year's end to another, and who knows the amount of his income to a penny. No, I am afraid that I should find such a life slightly tedious." Kelvin laughed. "Why don't you go in for marrying an heiress." he said. "You talk, mon ami!--talk as if heiresses were as plentiful as blackberries." "I don't think your heiress is a difficult fish to catch, especially by such a clever angler as I do not doubt that you are. But then you must make up your mind to be indifferent to good looks, and good breeding, and a few other simple et ceteras." "Ah! there's the rub." "But do you mean to say that the idea of marrying for money is one that you have never turned over in your mind?" "I can't say that exactly; but my ideas on the point have been very hazy ones indeed--quite nebulous, I assure you--nothing solid or tangible about them." "Nebulosity of ideas is a very bad thing in anybody. The sooner you bring them down from the clouds and condense them into a practical shape the better. First catch--not your hare, but your heiress; then bring all your powers of fascination to bear upon her, and then----" "My powers of fascination, indeed! You talk of me as if I were a rattlesnake." Again Kelvin laughed, then recollecting an appointment, he looked at his watch. "Well, don't forget to be here at six sharp," he said. And with that Gerald went.