By one of the natural ironies of life, at a moment when he was more in love than he had ever been yet, he was, nevertheless, thinking eagerly of prospects and of money.

Owing to his peculiar relation to his mother, and his father's estate, marriage would be to him no mere satisfaction of a personal passion.

It would be a vital incident in a politician's career, to whom larger means and greater independence were now urgently necessary.

To marry with his mother's full approval would at last bring about that provision for himself which his father's will had most unjustly postponed.

He was monstrously dependent upon her.