“Then why not tie the bag, Sir Within?” asked Lady Vyner, laughing. The old diplomatist’s eyes sparkled with a wicked drollery, and his mouth curved into a half-malicious smile, when Sir Gervais quietly said, “She means, why not marry?” “Ah, marry!” exclaimed he, throwing up his eyebrows with an air that said, “here is a totally new field before us!” and then, as quickly recovering, he said, “Yes, certainly. There is marriage! But, somehow, I always think on this subject of a remark Charles de Rochefoucauld once made me. He said he was laid up once with an attack of gout in a château near Nancy, without a single friend or acquaintance, and, to beguile the weary hours, he used to play chess with himself, so that at last he fancied he was very fond of the game. When he came up to Paris afterwards, he engaged a person to come every day and play with him; but to his horror he discovered that he could no longer win when he pleased, and he gave up the pursuit and never resumed it. This is, perhaps, one of the discoveries men like myself make when they marry.” “Not if they marry wisely, Sir Within,” said Lady Vyner. “I declare,” broke in Georgina, hastily, “I think Sir Within is right. Telling a person to marry wisely, is saying, ‘Go and win that thirty thousand pounds in the lottery.’” “At all events,” said Vyner, “you’ll never do it, if you don’t take a ticket.” “But to do that,” said Lady Vyner, laughingly, “one ought to dream of a lucky number, or consult a sorceress at least.” “Ah! if you would but be the sorceress, Lady Vyner,” exclaimed he, with a mingled seriousness and drollery. “And tell you, I suppose, when you ought to venture?” “Just so.” “Am I so certain that you’d respect my divination--a prophet can’t afford to be slighted.” “I promise,” said he; and rising from his seat, he extended his right. hand in imitation of a famous incident of the period, and exclaimed, “Je jure!” “It is then agreed,” said she, quietly, but with a slight show of humour. “If it should be ever revealed to me--intimated to my inner consciousness is the phrase, I believe--that a particular person was Heaven-sent for your especial happiness, I’ll immediately go and tell you.” “And I’ll marry her.” “Her consent is, of course, not in question whatever,” said Georgina; “but I think so gallant a person as Sir Within might have mentioned it.” “So I should, if Lady Vyner hadn’t said she was Heaven-sent. When the whole thing became destiny, it was only obedience was called for.” “You’re a lucky fellow,” cried Vyner, “if you’re not married off before Easter. There’s nothing so dangerous as giving a commission of this kind to a woman.” “Sir Within knows he can trust me; he knows that I feel all the responsibility of my charge. It is very possible that I may be too exacting--too difficult----” “I pray you do so,” cried he, with much eagerness.