And what would his future life be like with this strange woman?
That could not be exactly guessed.
That it would contain scenes of the greatest excitement he did not doubt.

She would in all cases look the part.

His mother herself--the Lady Tancred, daughter of the late and sister of the present Duke of Glastonbury--could not move with more dignity: a thought which reminded him that he had better write to his parent and inform her of his intended step.

He thought of all the women he had loved--or imagined he had loved--since he left Eton.

The two affairs which had convulsed him during his second year at Oxford were perhaps the most serious; the Laura Highford, his last episode, was fortunately over and had always been rather tiresome.