Mr. O'Boyneville walked away from Dorset Square vanquished, but not disheartened. He had been prepared for a rejection of his suit; but for him Cecil's irrevocable no was not entirely appalling. His experience had shown him many a verdict set aside, many a decision appealed against. And are there not courts of appeal in the kingdom of lovers, as well as in the vulgar every-day world of lawyers? In spite of what the barrister had said to Lady Cecil, he had been much relieved by her assurance that her heart and hand were alike disengaged. He had affected the resignation of despair, while a glow of hope had gently warmed his breast; and as he swaggered along the pavement of Baker Street on the watch for a passing hansom, he had by no means the appearance of a rejected and desponding lover. "I dare say she'll think me a fool for my pains, but at any rate she _will_ think of me, and that's something," mused Mr. O'Boyneville. "How prettily her eyelids drooped when she gave me her irrevocable answer--just as if she shrank from seeing the disappointment in my face! And how good and true and pure she is! There'd be little need for divorce-courts, and less work for the lawyers, if all women were like her; and I don't despair of calling her Lady Cecil O'Boyneville yet. There never was a good woman who wasn't to be won by the love of an honest man, provided there's no mistake about his love or his honesty. There's not a day of one's life but one hears of oddly-matched couples. What could pretty Mrs. Green have seen in that awkward lout Green? says Gossip. Why, what should she see except that he loved her better than any other man in creation? And then, if Fate is the master of men, Circumstance is the tyrant of women. A man may marry the woman he wishes to marry: a woman can only marry the man who wishes to marry her." And at this point the barrister espied an approaching hansom, and beckoned to the driver. "I may be in time to see the soap-boiler through his troubles yet," he thought, as he sprang into the vehicle. "Westminster Hall, cabby, and lose no time about it." CHAPTER X. THE RICH MR. LOBYER.