Archie Clavering, who had duly weighed himself, could hardly bring himself to believe that Lady Ongar would be fool enough to marry him! Seven thousand a year, with a park and farm in Surrey, and give it all to him--him, Archie Clavering, who had, so to say, no weight at all! Archie Clavering, for one, could not bring himself to believe it.
But yet Hermy, her sister, thought it possible; and though Hermy was, as Archie had found out by his invisible scales, lighter than Julia, still she must know something of her sister's nature.

And Hugh, who was by no means light--who was a man of weight, with money and position, and firm ground beneath his feet--he also thought that it might be so.

"Faint heart never won a fair lady," said Archie to himself a dozen times, as he walked down to the Rag.

The Rag was his club, and there was a friend there whom he could consult confidentially.

No; faint heart never won a fair lady; but they who repeat to themselves that adage, trying thereby to get courage, always have faint hearts for such work.