From this fault he had already failed with one young lady reputed to have L40,000, who had refused him because, as she naively said, she knew 'he did not really care.' 'How can I show that I care more than by wishing to make you my wife ?' he had asked.

'I don't know that you can, but all the same you don't care,' she said.

And so that young lady escaped the pitfall.

Now there was another young lady, to whom the reader shall be introduced in time, whom Sir Felix was instigated to pursue with unremitting diligence.

Her wealth was not defined, as had been the L40,000 of her predecessor, but was known to be very much greater than that.