be picked out from the multitude of young gentlemen to inherit two millions of money, and to marry the most charming—­yes, the most charming, the most talented, and the bravest young lady that I have ever met—­a young lady who not only carries twenty fortunes on her face, but another fortune in her brain, and his fortune on her neck—­and such a fortune, too!  Sir”—­and he bowed towards Eustace—­

“’Lovely Thais sits beside thee,
Take the goods the gods provide thee.’

“I salute you, as all men must salute one so supremely favoured.  Humbly, I salute you; humbly I pray that you may continually deserve the almost unparalleled good that it has pleased Providence to bestow upon you.”

And then Eustace rose and made his speech, and a very good speech it was, considering the trying circumstances under which it was made.  He told them how he had fallen in love with Augusta’s sweet face the very first time that he had set eyes upon it in the office of his uncle at Birmingham.  He told them what he had felt when, after getting some work in London, he had returned to Birmingham to find his lady-love flown, and of what he had endured when he heard that she was among the drowned on board the Kangaroo.  Then he came to the happy day of the return, and to that still happier day when he discovered that he had not loved her in vain, finally ending thus—­

“Dr. Probate has said that I am a supremely fortunate man, and I admit the truth of his remark.  I am, indeed, fortunate above my deserts, so fortunate that I feel afraid.  When I turn and see my beloved wife sitting at my side, I feel afraid lest I should after all be dreaming a dream, and awake to find nothing but emptiness.  And then, on the other hand, is this colossal wealth, which has come to me through her, and there again I feel afraid.  But, please Heaven, I hope with her help to do some good with it, and remembering always that it is a great trust that has been placed in my hands.  And she also is a trust and a far more inestimable one, and as I deal with her so may I be dealt with here and hereafter.”  Then, by an afterthought, he proposed the health of the legal twins, who had so nobly borne the brunt of the affray single-handed, and disconcerted the Attorney-General and all his learned host.

Thereon James rose to reply in terms of elephantine eloquence, and would have gone through the whole case again had not Lady Holmhurst in despair pulled him by the sleeve and told him that he must propose her health, which he did with sincerity, lightly alluding to the fact that she was a widow by describing her as being in a “discovert condition, with all the rights and responsibilities of a ‘femme sole.’”

Everybody burst out laughing, not excepting poor lady Holmhurst herself, and James sat down, not without indignation that a giddy world should object to an exact and legal definition of the status of the individual as set out by the law.