"You amaze me. There is a difference in age, I grant. But how little! He is still what we call a young man. And then marriages are so difficult to make up in these horrible times. Who else is there in all New Orleans?" "I don't see why she should marry at all," said the Doctor very warmly. "Why can't she continue to live with me?" "Positively you are not serious." "I certainly am. I beg pardon for disagreeing with you, but I don't see why I shouldn't entertain the idea I mention." "Oh! when it comes to that, there is no arguing. You step out of the bounds of reason into pure feeling and _egoïsme_. I also beg your pardon, but I must tell you that you are _egoïste_. To forbid a girl to marry is like forbidding a young man to engage in business, to work, to open his own _carrière_. A woman who must not love is defrauded of her best rights." "Why can't she be satisfied with loving me?" demanded the Doctor. He knew that he was talking irrationally on this subject; but what he meant to say was, "I don't like Colonel Carter." "Because that would leave her an unhappy, sickly old maid," retorted Madame. "Because that would leave you without grandchildren." Ravenel rose and walked the room with a melancholy step and a countenance full of trouble. Suddenly he stopped short and turned upon Mrs. Larue a look of anxious inquiry. "I hope you have not observed in Lillie any inclination towards this--this idea." "Not the slightest," replied Madame, lying frankly, and without the slightest hesitation or confusion. "And you have not broached it to her?" "Never!" affirmed the lady solemnly, which was another whopper. "I sincerely hope that you will not. Oblige me, I beg you, by promising that you will not." "If such is your pleasure," sighed Madame. "Well--I promise." "I am so much obliged to you," said the Doctor. "I know that there is a difference in age," Mrs. Larue recommenced, thereby insinuating that that was the only objection to the match that she could imagine: but her brother-in-law solemnly shook his head, as if to say that he had other reasons for opposition compared with which this was a trifle: and so, after taking a sharp look at him, she judged it wise to drop the subject. "I hope," concluded the Doctor, "that hereafter, when I am away, you will allow Lillie to receive calls in your house. There is a back passage. It is neither quite decorous to receive gentlemen alone here, nor to send them away." Mrs. Larue made no objection to this plan, seeing that she could be just as strict or just as careless a duenna as she chose.