'Well, he might just as well not,' said Josephine in the same tone. 'They would never hear of my marrying _him_. It's all very nice to drive four-in-hand with somebody, and dance the German with him; and have good times at pic-nics and such things; but when it came to settling down in a little bit of a house, without a room in it big enough for a German; and ingrain carpets on the floors—I couldn't, Hazel!' said the girl with a shudder. 'And there it is, you see.' Wych Hazel looked at her—and then she laughed. 'There is nothing much more fearful than "the right person" on ingrain carpets,' she said mockingly. 'Except, perhaps, the wrong one on Turkey.' 'Turkey carpets are jolly under your feet,' said Josephine. 'And after all, I wonder if it matters so much about the man? At least, when you can't have the right one. Well, you don't help me much. Annabella wanted to know if you wouldn't join a party to hear Dane Rollo read, Saturday night? She is crazy about those readings. _I_ believe she's touched about him. Will you go?' 'No. Josephine, it matters _everything_ about the man,' said Hazel earnestly. 'What sort of a life do you expect, if you begin with a false oath?' 'A false oath?' 'Yes. Think what you have to promise.' 'What do I have to promise?' 'You know,' said Hazel impatiently. 'You have seen people married often enough to remember what they must say.' 'I never thought about what they said. It's just a form; that's all.' 'You would like to have Mr. Charteris consider _his_ part just a form?' 'I never thought anything else about it. It is a form that would give me a right to the diamonds, you know, or anything else his money could buy. O dear! if one could have the things without the man! Will you go to hear Rollo read?' 'Well you had better think about it,' said Hazel. 'If it is _only_ a form, it will give you a clear right to be miserable. I advise you to go straight home and study the words, and try them with different names. And do not really say them to anyone they do not fit. Do you hear me, Josephine?' The girl was looking up in her face with a look strange for her; a look studious of Wych Hazel herself; searching, somewhat wondering, secretly admiring. The look went off to the window with a half sigh. ' "Fais que dois, advienne que pourra," ' Hazel added softly. 'I don't know what I ought to do!' said Josephine. 'How can I? If Stuart Nightingale had anything but what he spends—O what's the use talking about it, Hazel? Suppose I hadn't money to dress myself decently?' 'A man who has nothing but what he spends, spends too much,' said Wych Hazel, with a smile to herself over the duration of Mr. Nightingale's "life-long" heartbreak of the fall before. 'Do you mean that he would not spare a little for you?' 'He hasn't enough for both,' said Josephine, looking very dismal. 'T'other one has enough for a dozen.'