He had made up his mind that marriage would not suit his business, and he smiled to himself as he reflected how impossible it was that such a one as Lady Carbury should turn him from his resolution.
'I am so glad that you have come to-night, Mr Alf,' Lady Carbury said to the high-minded editor of the 'Evening Pulpit.' 'Am I not always glad to come, Lady Carbury ?' 'You are very good.

But I feared--' 'Feared what, Lady Carbury ?' 'That you might perhaps have felt that I should be unwilling to welcome you after,--well, after the compliments of last Thursday.' 'I never allow the two things to join themselves together.

You see, Lady Carbury, I don't write all these things myself.' 'No indeed.

What a bitter creature you would be if you did.' 'To tell the truth, I never write any of them.

Of course we endeavour to get people whose judgments we can trust, and if, as in this case, it should unfortunately happen that the judgment of our critic should be hostile to the literary pretensions of a personal friend of my own, I can only lament the accident, and trust that my friend may have spirit enough to divide me as an individual from that Mr Alf who has the misfortune to edit a newspaper.' 'It is because you have so trusted me that I am obliged to you,' said Lady Carbury with her sweetest smile.