Your daughter and I are very good friends, the place is most detestably dull, there is nothing to do, and if we amuse ourselves with a little love-making, surely there can be no great harm.' This rejoinder of mine made things worse; I thought the old boy would have had a fit.

At last he said, 'The mail steamer leaves for England to-morrow; you shall go home by her, I order you to do so!' I replied that I should please myself, and that I was not under his orders.

The general went away uttering threats.

After he was gone I thought seriously over the matter.

I calculated that my income of 120_l._ a year would scarcely suffice to keep a wife, and I decided to renounce my dream of love.