I want nothing but a home to make it a happy one." "What is the latest news ?--dear London! I am so sorry Grandmamma, Lady Elizabeth, is not going there this year, so I am compelled to rusticate.
Is Lady Jane D----- to be married at last ?" "Commend me to a young lady's idea of news,--always marriage! Lady Jane D-----! yes, she is to be married, as you say--_at last_! While she was a beauty, our cold sex was shy of her; but she has now faded into plainness,--the proper colour for a wife." "Complimentary!" "Indeed it is--for you beautiful women we love too much for our own happiness--heigho!--and a prudent marriage means friendly indifference, not rapture and despair.

But give me beauty and love; I never was prudent: it is not my weakness." Though Caroline was his sole supporter in this dialogue, Lord Vargrave's eyes attempted to converse with Evelyn, who was unusually silent and abstracted.

Suddenly Lord Vargrave seemed aware that he was scarcely general enough in his talk for his hearers.

He addressed himself to Mrs.
Leslie, and glided back, as it were, into a former generation.

He spoke of persons gone and things forgotten; he made the subject interesting even to the young, by a succession of various and sparkling anecdotes.
No one could be more agreeable; even Evelyn now listened to him with pleasure, for to all women wit and intellect have their charm.