He is the luckiest fellow imaginable, that Vargrave! But he is much too old for her: she seems to think so too.

I can't explain why I think it; but by her pretty reserved manner I saw that she tried to keep the gay minister at a distance: but it would not do.

Now, if you were ten years younger, or Miss Cameron ten years older, you might have had some chance of cutting out your old friend." "So you think I also am too old for a lover ?" "For a lover of a girl of seventeen, certainly.

You seem touchy on the score of age, Ernest." "Not I;" and Maltravers laughed.
"No?
There was a young gentleman present, who, I think, Vargrave might really find a dangerous rival,--a Colonel Legard,--one of the handsomest men I ever saw in my life; just the style to turn a romantic young lady's head; a mixture of the wild and the thoroughbred; black curls, superb eyes, and the softest manners in the world.

But, to be sure, he has lived all his life in the best society.