terrupted Charles. "I only said to Lord Penrhyn, that at my age a man begins to think of his future, and of settling in life."
"Settling in folly!" cried Lady Penrhyn. "I hate to hear young men talk of marrying; they are lost to all intents and purposes. Half the pleasant houses open to you while single, would be shut when you are double. Who do you think would care to waltz or to sing with you if you were once married?"
"I am glad to find, my dear," said Lord Penrhyn, "how completely we always agree." Charles saw the fruitlessness of saying more on the subject. From his sister he could hope for no sympathy, and from her husband no help."
"So," muttered he, bitterly, as he sought his lodgings, "I must not think of affection and independence, because my sister holds that no one would care to flirt with me if I were married, and because my brother-in-law will not risk losing a vote on a question which only involves a few hundreds that he would not miss if he threw them to-morrow into the fire. I wish that I had only a small portion of his wealth. I think, I hope, that I should make a better use of it." So we all think till the time comes, and then, whether wealth bring the curse of selfishness along with it, or that the leaven was in our nature, only dormant till called forth by circumstances, we are only too apt to misuse it, even as others have done before us.
