"Part of the price, my boy! You can't steal anything, or do anything against the law, be it of man or of morals or of the spirit--that you don't have to pay for it--and there is no use in haggling beforehand or in squealing after. The thing is to learn early enough in life what is worth while and what you really want, before you lay up for yourself limitations." "That is true--." "Now let us analyse what gains and losses you have had in the Suzette business. Let us take the gains first--You had a jolly little companion during some months of pain and weariness--She helped you over a difficult moment--You were not leading her astray. To be the friend of war-heroes was her _métier_--you paid her highly in solid cash--You are under no obligation to her--. But the law has decreed that man must have no illicit relations, so the force of that current, or belief, or whatever it is, makes you pay some price for having broken the law--Accept it and get through with it--And if the price has been too heavy decide not to incur such debts again. The whole bother occurs because you don't look ahead, my boy! There was a case when I was a youngster and just joined my Battalion of Guards which will illustrate what I mean, of Bobby Bulteel, Hartelford's brother.--He cheated at cards--He was a kind of cousin of my mother's so the family felt the scandal awfully--He was kicked out of course, and utterly broke, and Lady Hilda Marchant ran off with him, and left her husband. She adored the fellow who had every charm--Well that was not worth while--The odds are too heavy for anyone ever to have the ghost of a chance to pull cheating off. He was simply a fool, you see. Take chances, but never when the scales have gone beyond the angle of forty-five degrees!"--Then having finished his cigar George rose in the best of tempers--. "You may take it from me Nicholas--it sounds old fashioned--but to behave like a gentleman and always be ready to discharge your obligations, are the best rules for life.----Ta ta, dear boy--Shall look in on you soon again--" and he went! Of course his logic is unanswerable--So I had better accept the shadow of Suzette falling upon my relation with Alathea, and try to gain my end in spite of it--And what is my very end? Not of course that I shall spend the rest of my life as Alathea's husband-in-name-only, hungry and longing and miserable--but that after securing her certain companionship I shall overcome her prejudices, conquer her aversion, and make her love me.--But to have the chance to do all this it is absolutely necessary that I shall be near her always--So my idea of marriage is not so far-fetched after all! And if she will accept me, someday, upon _any terms_--provided they do not mean separation--I shall believe that half the battle is won--I feel more cheerful already!--How sound reasoning does one good, even if it is as baldly brutal as George's! XVII