He didn't know what he was doing.

I'm a poor man, but I wouldn't take her with L5,000 a year, settled on myself." Poor Mounser Green! "I think she's the handsomest girl in London," said Hoffmann, who was a young man of German parentage and perhaps of German taste.
"That may be," continued Green;--"but, heaven and earth! what a life she would lead a man like the Paragon! He's found it out, and therefore thought it well to go to South America.

She has declined already, I'm told; but he means to stick to the mission." During all this time Mounser Green was smoking his cigar with his back to the fire, and the other clerks looked as though they had nothing to do but talk about the private affairs of ministers abroad and their friends.

Of course it will be understood that since we last saw John Morton the position of Minister Plenipotentiary at Patagonia had been offered to him and that he had accepted the place in spite of Bragton and of Arabella Trefoil.
At that moment a card was handed to Mounser Green by a messenger who was desired to show the gentleman up.

"It's the Paragon himself," said Green.
"We'll make him tell us whether he's going out single or double," said Archibald Currie.
"After what the Rufford people said to me I'm sure he's going to marry her," said young Glossop.