CHAPTER II.
A certain time after the marriage, his Grace alighted at the Wells, and did himself the honour to call on Mr.Beamish.Addressing that gentleman, to whom he was no stranger, he communicated the purport of his visit.
'Sir, and my very good friend,' he said, 'first let me beg you to abate the severity of your countenance, for if I am here in breach of your prohibition, I shall presently depart in compliance with it.

I could indeed deplore the loss of the passion for play of which you effectually cured me.

I was then armed against a crueller, that allows of no interval for a man to make his vow to recover!' 'The disease which is all crisis, I apprehend,' Mr.Beamish remarked.
'Which, sir, when it takes hold of dry wood, burns to the last splinter.
It is now'-- the duke fetched a tender groan--'three years ago that I had a caprice to marry a grandchild!' 'Of Adam's,' Mr.Beamish said cheerfully.

'There was no legitimate bar to the union.' 'Unhappily none.

Yet you are not to suppose I regret it.