“I don’t know that I have made anything of him,” answered Julia.  “I suppose he’s much like other men when they’re going to be married.”  Julia quite understood the ideas that were passing through her sister’s mind, and did not feel them to be unnatural.

“What I mean is, that he has come out so strong in the Romeo line, which we hardly expected, you know.  We shall have him under your bedroom window with a guitar, like Don Giovanni.”

“I hope not, because it’s so cold.  I don’t think it likely, as he seems fond of going to bed early.”

“And it’s the best thing for him,” said Lady Clavering, becoming serious and carefully benevolent.  “It’s quite a wonder what good hours and quiet living have done for him in so short a time.  I was observing him as he walked yesterday, and he put his feet to the ground as firmly almost as Hugh does.”

“Did he indeed?  I hope he won’t have the habit of putting his hand down firmly as Hugh does sometimes.”

“As for that,” said Lady Clavering, with a little tremor, “I don’t think there’s much difference between them.  They all say that when Lord Ongar means a thing he does mean it.”

“I think a man ought to have a way of his own.”

“And a woman also, don’t you, my dear?  But, as I was saying, if Lord Ongar will continue to take care of himself he may become quite a different man.  Hugh says that he drinks next to nothing now, and though he sometimes lights a cigar in the smoking room at night, he hardly ever smokes it.  You must do what you can to keep him from tobacco.  I happen to know that Sir Charles Poddy said that so many cigars were worse for him even than brandy.”

All this Julia bore with an even temper.  She was determined to bear everything till her time should come.  Indeed she had made herself understand that the hearing of such things as these was a part of the price which she was to be called upon to pay.  It was not pleasant for her to hear what Sir Charles Poddy had said about the tobacco and brandy of the man she was just going to marry.  She would sooner have heard of his riding sixty miles a day, or dancing all night, as she might have heard had she been contented to take Harry Clavering.  But she had made her selection with her eyes open, and was not disposed to quarrel with her bargain, because that which she had bought was no better than the article which she had known it to be when she was making her purchase.  Nor was she even angry with her sister.  “I will do the best I can, Hermy; you may be sure of that.  But there are some things which it is useless to talk about.”

“But it was as well you should know what Sir Charles said.”

“I know quite enough of what he says, Hermy—­quite as much, I dare say, as you do.  But, never mind.  If Lord Ongar has given up smoking, I quite agree with you that it’s a good thing.  I wish they’d all give it up, for I hate the smell of it.  Hugh has got worse and worse.  He never cares about changing his clothes now.”