CHAPTER III.
YES, Sir Charles was _after_ Mrs.Woffington.I use that phrase because it is a fine generic one, suitable to different kinds of love-making.
Mr.Vane's sentiments were an inexplicable compound; but respect, enthusiasm, and deep admiration were the uppermost.
The good Sir Charles was no enigma.

He had a vacancy in his establishment--a very high situation, too, for those who like that sort of thing--the head of his table, his left hand when he drove in the Park, etc.

To this he proposed to promote Mrs.Woffington.She was handsome and witty, and he liked her.

But that was not what caused him to pursue her; slow, sagacious, inevitable as a beagle.
She was celebrated, and would confer great _eclat_ on him.

The scandal of possessing her was a burning temptation.