Arthur Vavasour, although he might not be exactly in that blissful condition which has been described as having “nothing on one’s mind,” was nevertheless quite sufficiently light-hearted as he wended his way that spring afternoon in the direction of Stanwick-street, to make all things around and about him seem wonderfully bright and hopeful. The “tropic time of youth,” the possession of life’s choicest gifts--health, wealth, and beauty--were enough in themselves to account for the “gleams elysian” that lighted up this young man’s path while, treading as though it were air the Tyburnian pavement, he wended his way to the presence of his peerless Honor. His!--for already he had begun to arrogate to himself the monopoly of his neighbour’s wife. The monopoly, that is to say, of her time, her thoughts, her _liking_. Already there could, it is to be feared, be little doubt of the melancholy fact, that the affection and fidelity of his own wife would, in comparison with that of honest John’s, have been but little prized. Of the one he was assured, while over the other hung just enough of the delightful veil woven of hope and imagination to lend enchantment to the prospect which his own unrestrained passions, aided by the machinations of one of the vilest of human beings, held up before him. To the motives as well as to the plottings of Honor’s unprincipled father, the infatuated young man resolutely closed his eyes. He could scarcely fail to see that Colonel Norcott was ready to promote and encourage his intimacy with John Beacham’s wife, and under any other circumstances Arthur would have turned aside with disgust and horror from conduct so vile and so unprincipled. But we are very apt (and Vavasour was no exception to the rule) to condone the sin by which we hope to profit; and there were besides other reasons, although I must not anticipate, which would assist in accounting to the reader for the readiness with which the young heir of Gillingham fell into the plans and projects of the almost universally “held cheap” sporting-man. On this occasion, the occasion of his ostensible visit to the master of the house, he found, as he expected, Honor Beacham alone. That _she_ was agitated by his appearance both her words and the pretty confusion which she was far too untutored to disguise, betrayed; and that Arthur, forgetful of his young wife at home--forgetful of old ties of friendship, and utterly careless of consequences as regarded the guileless wife whose peace he was undermining--made the best of the passing hours allowed him by the prudential arrangements of the unprincipled Fred, who that knows anything of the worst side of human nature can doubt?