“From my mother I inherited a small income, which proved about sufficient for my extravagances, and I passed my days with a crowd of boon companions, traveling when and whither I pleased, just as the mood seized me. Among my acquaintances was one whom I held dearer than all; we were bound together by the firmest bond--true friendship. Conway was a handsome fellow, with a reckless, dare-all style that suited my wild nature, and an honest heart; we were inseparable. And next to him in my friendship was a man called Everest, a strong-willed being with a plain face, but having the manners of a Crichton, together with a fund of common sense. Everest was a barrier to Conway’s and my wildness, and to him we owed many lucky escapes. We were with one accord railers at matrimony, and a very bad time of it any poor fellow had who deserted our ranks to take unto himself a wife. I laughed and bantered like the others, deeming myself invulnerable; yet, when I laughed the loudest, I fell wounded. My raillery was over, my whole nature changed. The laughter and jokes of my comrades jarred on me; my soul revolted from the lazy, useless life I was leading. I grew earnest and grave--I had fallen in love. I had seen a woman who suddenly changed the current of my life. “Gladys, my angel, my sweet star! She was the niece of one of my mother’s old friends. I rarely visited any of the old set, but one day the mood seized me to pay a visit to a Lady Leverick, with whom as a boy I used to be a great favorite; and at her house I saw my darling. What need to tell you all that followed? I haunted the house, unconscious that Lady Leverick grew colder and colder, heedless of all but Gladys’ sweet face and glorious eyes. “At last the dream was dispelled; her aunt spoke to me. Gladys was an orphan under her charge; she was penniless, dependent on her charity, and she would not have so wild, so dissolute a man propose for the girl’s hand. I was mad, I think, for I answered angrily; but in the midst of the storm came a gleam of golden light. Gladys entered the room, and, in response to her aunt’s commands to retire, put out her fair, white hands to me, and, leaning her head on my breast, whispered that she loved me, and that nothing would separate us.