The Colonel would have preferred that Nouna’s name should be left out of the discussion. He continued: “A young American, a connection of Lady Millard’s, who is engaged in a bank here called the ‘London, New York, and Chicago,’ was telling me at their place a few nights ago that the firm intend to start a branch establishment in Paris, for the use chiefly of the English and American colonies. They have an opening for a young man of good birth and address. It’s a wretched thing, I know, for you,” he went on with a change of voice, glancing again regretfully from head to foot of the handsome young soldier. “Can you get it for me?” asked Lauriston, with a first sign of eagerness. “I think so, but--the salary is miserable and----” “What will they give?” “Something like a hundred and twenty at the outside to begin with. It’s starvation.” “Not a bit of it. It’s more than my pay.” “Yes, but your wife!” “My wife?” George’s face broke with a ray of a smile. “She shall be all right. She is no more than a bird to keep; and we shall live very near the housetops, where she will be at home.” In fact, the idea of having her all to himself again sprang up a bright little fountain in desolation, unlooked for in his breast. The Colonel pulled his moustache. Nouna, he thought, was the sort of bird to make a very uncomfortable flapping against the bars of any but the most expensive of cages. “When can I know whether they will give me the berth?” George asked. “I almost think, from the manner in which they spoke, that what I should say about you would settle it. They are particular as to the stamp of man. You could hear in a week.” “How soon can I get away, Colonel?” “As soon as you like; I’ll see that it’s all right.” “Thanks. I want to wind up all my affairs here quietly, and slip away at any moment when I have arranged for the payment of the debts we have incurred.” “You can make me security for those. And, by the by, I can give you some good introductions in Paris.” “Many thanks, Colonel, but it would only be prolonging the social death-struggle. One can only die game to society on--on the income we shall have.” “Don’t you think, for your wife’s sake, you are wrong in resolving to be so independent? How will you keep her amused?” “Oh, that won’t be difficult in Paris. The very air is more exhilarating than here, and she is just the person to appreciate its pleasures.” “But the pleasures ladies love are no cheaper there than here, remember.”