man who should some day lead her to the altar mr listened with only a languid interest to a number of these until it dawned upon him that there was something peculiar in their astonishing i beg your pardon old fellow he said one day while dining at the club when the made an allusion to the in his usual vein i don t want to seem but what interest do you think i can possibly have in that confounded family why i thought you were on very good terms was the response you and the seem extremely friendly yawned but you re rubbing it in you know you of them every time we get together it s all right occasionally to get on to the subject but it loses its attractions after awhile i ve no objections to once or twice a week but you insist on my having him every meal and it s not only but miss say what are you up to thus mr was driven into making a show of his hand well the fact is my dear i have been wondering why the charms of miss have no apparent effect on a young man in your situation if she hadn t a penny she would be a prize worth winning but with her setting of gold and precious stones she is beyond anything in new york you are going to marry by and by you ve told me so yourself what better can you hope for miss giddy than such a fortune and such a beauty in one mr took out a box of that a friend had sent him from after offering one to mr he lit another and for some moments puffed lazily i half suspected that was your game he said finally is the old gentleman in it too it s not fair to speak of it in that way was the reply delivered in an injured tone i d do anything i could for you but in this case my would be of no account all i can say is mr likes you better than any other young man he knows and in my opinion would not stand in your way if miss smiled upon your advances mr looked as if there was an element of humor in the whole affair and drew a few draughts from a glass that stood on the table at his side i ve got lots of time yet said he wiping his lips a man out on doesn t like to surrender till the court day arrives the took what advantage he could of the reply he remarked that there was of course no need for haste on either side miss was no more likely to think of an immediate marriage than mr it s worth while putting in a foundation though he added laughed again still with the bored look on his handsome face oh now you re talking shop he said well it s not so unlike replied the look at that house i m putting up for the from start to finish it will take three years to build a it ought to require just about that for you to get to the point of wedding miss in three years she will be twenty one allow the first year for an understanding to grow up the second for an announcement of the engagement and the third for the actual preparations of course a year cut from the total would not spoil things any if you should conclude that it was advisable the younger man lit a and again from the you said he get to allowing altogether too much time for i begin to believe has this very thing in his head i can t go there without hearing something dropped that shows it so your first year the one to be devoted to getting up an understanding is disposed of to begin with even allowing that i looked on miss as a possible end to my there would be twelve good months left to me by your own calculation it is said that an hour s sleep before midnight is worth two afterward on the same basis a year of single life ought to be more interesting than five of mr paid the customary tribute to the wit of his companion much you know about sleep before midnight he added and as little very naturally about the married state i know marriage is a nuisance even if i haven t tried it was the answer the contemporary evidence is enough to show that a frenchman once told me it was more agreeable to kiss the wives of other men than to keep a wife for other men to kiss it must be a trial for a born young miss to find himself in possession of a game preserve which he must watch between i know men whose time is equally divided between looking after their own daughters and attempting liberties with other people s no wonder their hair is growing gray under the strain then children are such an curse and one lays himself open to such when he enters the married state more than when he keeps a mistress asked mr oh that s ridiculous was the impatient the gazed at his companion in silence for a little while he wanted to utter his wisest thoughts now this matter was fairly opened there is no need of haste he said finally i am quite intimate at the and i shall know if there is a chance of another s getting a so that i can keep you posted thanks awfully with mock politeness there was the duke of proceeded the the irony and there was the prince of both of them made formal for miss s hand not to mention a score of others of less exalted rank in fact the proposals have about one a month now as 