‘Yes you will,’ said Venetia.

’I am quite serious, Venetia.  Now, mark my words, and remember this day.  I never will marry.  I have a reason, and a strong and good one, for my resolution.’

‘What is it?’

’Because my marriage will destroy the intimacy that subsists between me and yourself, and Plantagenet,’ he added.

‘Your wife should be my friend,’ said Venetia.

‘Happy woman!’ said George.

‘Let us indulge for a moment in a dream of domestic bliss,’ said Venetia gaily.  ’Papa and mamma at Cherbury; Plantagenet and myself at the abbey, where you and your wife must remain until we could build you a house; and Dr. Masham coming down to spend Christmas with us.  Would it not be delightful?  I only hope Plantagenet would be tame.  I think he would burst out a little sometimes.’

‘Not with you, Venetia, not with you,’ said George ’you have a hold over him which nothing can ever shake.  I could always put him in an amiable mood in an instant by mentioning your name.’

‘I wish you knew the abbey, George,’ said Venetia.  ’It is the most interesting of all old places.  I love it.  You must promise me when you arrive in England to go on a pilgrimage to Cadurcis and Cherbury, and write me a long account of it.’

‘I will indeed; I will write to you very often.’

’You shall find me a most faithful correspondent, which, I dare say, Plantagenet would not prove.’

‘Oh!  I beg your pardon,’ said George; ’you have no idea of the quantity of letters he wrote me when he first quitted England.  And such delightful ones!  I do not think there is a more lively letter-writer in the world!  His descriptions are so vivid; a few touches give you a complete picture; and then his observations, they are so playful!  I assure you there is nothing in the world more easy and diverting than a letter from Plantagenet.’

‘If you could only see his first letter from Eton to me?’ said Venetia.  ’I have always treasured it.  It certainly was not very diverting; and, if by easy you mean easy to decipher,’ she added laughing, ’his handwriting must have improved very much lately.  Dear Plantagenet, I am always afraid I never pay him sufficient respect; that I do not feel sufficient awe in his presence; but I cannot disconnect him from the playfellow of my infancy; and, do you know, it seems to me, whenever he addresses me, his voice and air change, and assume quite the tone and manner of childhood.’

‘I have never known him but as a great man,’ said Captain Cadurcis; ’but he was so frank and simple with me from the very first, that I cannot believe that it is not two years since we first met.’

‘Ah!  I shall never forget that night at Ranelagh,’ said Venetia, half with a smile and half with a sigh.  ’How interesting he looked!  I loved to see the people stare at him, and to hear them whisper his name.’

Here they seated themselves by a fountain, overshadowed by a plane-tree, and for a while talked only of Plantagenet.