But--our women are very nice: they have the dearest, sweetest ways: but I would rather Evan did not marry one of them.

And then there 's the religion!' This was a sore of the Countess's own, and she dropped a tear in coming across it.
'No, my dears, it shall be Rose Jocelyn!' she concluded: 'I will take Evan over with me, and see that he has opportunities.

It shall be Rose, and then I can call her mine; for in verity I love the child.' It is not my part to dispute the Countess's love for Miss Jocelyn; and I have only to add that Evan, unaware of the soft training he was to undergo, and the brilliant chance in store for him, offered no impediment to the proposition that he should journey to Portugal with his sister (whose subtlest flattery was to tell him that she should not be ashamed to own him there); and ultimately, furnished with cash for the trip by the remonstrating brewer, went.
So these Parcae, daughters of the shears, arranged and settled the young man's fate.

His task was to learn the management of his mouth, how to dress his shoulders properly, and to direct his eyes--rare qualities in man or woman, I assure you; the management of the mouth being especially admirable, and correspondingly difficult.

These achieved, he was to place his battery in position, and win the heart and hand of an heiress.
Our comedy opens with his return from Portugal, in company with Miss Rose, the heiress; the Honourable Melville Jocelyn, the diplomate; and the Count and Countess de Saldar, refugees out of that explosive little kingdom..