CHAPTER III.
COELEBS, quid agam ?*--HORACE.
* "What shall I do, a bachelor ?" IN a room at Fenton's Hotel sat Lord Vargrave and Caroline Lady Doltimore,--two months after the marriage of the latter.
"Doltimore has positively fixed, then, to go abroad on your return from Cornwall ?" "Positively,--to Paris.

You can join us at Christmas, I trust ?" "I have no doubt of it; and before then I hope that I shall have arranged certain public matters, which at present harass and absorb me even more than my private affairs." "You have managed to obtain terms with Mr.Douce, and to delay the repayment of your debt to him ?" "Yes, I hope so, till I touch Miss Cameron's income; which will be mine, I trust, by the time she is eighteen." "You mean the forfeit money of thirty thousand pounds ?" "Not I; I mean what I said!" "Can you really imagine she will still accept your hand ?" "With your aid, I do imagine it! Hear me.

You must take Evelyn with you to Paris.

I have no doubt but that she will be delighted to accompany you; nay, I have paved the way so far.

For, of course, as a friend of the family, and guardian to Evelyn, I have maintained a correspondence with Lady Vargrave.