And, above all, he was more than half in love with her, and could get quite a large share of pleasure out of the affair as well.

He had been too busy to trouble much over women as a sex since he had left the University--except in the way he had once described to his old master, regarding them as flowers in a garden--mere pleasures for sight and touch, and experiencing ephemeral passions which left no mark.

But women either feared or adored him; and this woman, the desired of a host of his friends, had singled him out for her especial favors.

It had amused him the whole of the last season; he had defied her efforts to chain him to her chariot wheels, and in the winter she had gone to Egypt, and had only just returned.

But the charm was growing, and he felt he would allow himself to be caught in her net.
"Mrs.Cricklander would be very much amused could she hear this verdict of the county," he said with a certain tone in his voice which did not escape Halcyone.