With regard to Evan, the Countess had far outstripped her sisters in her views.  A gentleman she had discovered must have one of two things—­a title or money.  He might have all the breeding in the world; he might be as good as an angel; but without a title or money he was under eclipse almost total.  On a gentleman the sun must shine.  Now, Evan had no title, no money.  The clouds were thick above the youth.  To gain a title he would have to scale aged mountains.  There was one break in his firmament through which the radiant luminary might be assisted to cast its beams on him still young.  That divine portal was matrimony.  If he could but make a rich marriage he would blaze transfigured; all would be well!  And why should not Evan marry an heiress, as well as another?

‘I know a young creature who would exactly suit him,’ said the Countess.  ’She is related to the embassy, and is in Lisbon now.  A charming child—­just sixteen!  Dios! how the men rave about her! and she isn’t a beauty,—­there’s the wonder; and she is a little too gauche too English in her habits and ways of thinking; likes to be admired, of course, but doesn’t know yet how to set about getting it.  She rather scandalizes our ladies, but when you know her!—­She will have, they say, a hundred ’thousand pounds in her own right!  Rose Jocelyn, the daughter of Sir Franks, and that eccentric Lady Jocelyn.  She is with her uncle, Melville, the celebrated diplomate though, to tell you the truth, we turn him round our fingers, and spin him as the boys used to do the cockchafers.  I cannot forget our old Fallow field school-life, you see, my dears.  Well, Rose Jocelyn would just suit Evan.  She is just of an age to receive an impression.  And I would take care she did.  Instance me a case where I have failed?

’Or there is the Portuguese widow, the Rostral.  She’s thirty, certainly; but she possesses millions!  Estates all over the kingdom, and the sweetest creature.  But, no.  Evan would be out of the way there, certainly.  But—­our women are very nice:  they have the dearest, sweetest ways:  but I would rather Evan did not marry one of them.  And then there ‘s the religion!’

This was a sore of the Countess’s own, and she dropped a tear in coming across it.

‘No, my dears, it shall be Rose Jocelyn!’ she concluded:  ’I will take Evan over with me, and see that he has opportunities.  It shall be Rose, and then I can call her mine; for in verity I love the child.’

It is not my part to dispute the Countess’s love for Miss Jocelyn; and I have only to add that Evan, unaware of the soft training he was to undergo, and the brilliant chance in store for him, offered no impediment to the proposition that he should journey to Portugal with his sister (whose subtlest flattery was to tell him that she should not be ashamed to own him there); and ultimately, furnished with cash for the trip by the remonstrating brewer, went.

So these Parcae, daughters of the shears, arranged and settled the young man’s fate.  His task was to learn the management of his mouth, how to dress his shoulders properly, and to direct his eyes—­rare qualities in man or woman, I assure you; the management of the mouth being especially admirable, and correspondingly difficult.  These achieved, he was to place his battery in position, and win the heart and hand of an heiress.