first impulse had been against yielding, arising from some feeling which made him think that more than the bargain ought not to be exacted.  But what was the use to him of quarrelling?  What the use, at least, of quarrelling just then?  He believed that he could more easily enfranchise himself from the de Courcy tyranny when he should be once married than he could do now.  When Lady Alexandrina should be his own he would let her know that he intended to be her master.  If in doing so it would be necessary that he should divide himself altogether from the de Courcys, such division should be made.  At the present moment he would yield to them, at any rate in this matter.  And so the fourteenth of February was fixed for the marriage.

In the second week in January Alexandrina came up to look after her things; or, in more noble language, to fit herself with becoming bridal appanages.  As she could not properly do all this work alone, or even under the surveillance and with the assistance of a sister, Lady de Courcy was to come up also.  But Alexandrina came first, remaining with her sister in St. John’s Wood till the countess should arrive.  The countess had never yet condescended to accept of her son-in-law’s hospitality, but always went to the cold, comfortless house in Portman Square,—­the house which had been the de Courcy town family mansion for many years, and which the countess would long since have willingly exchanged for some abode on the other side of Oxford Street; but the earl had been obdurate; his clubs and certain lodgings which he had occasionally been wont to occupy, were on the right side of Oxford Street; why should he change his old family residence?  So the countess was coming up to Portman Square, not having been even asked on this occasion to St. John’s Wood.

“Don’t you think we’d better,” Mr Gazebee had said to his wife, almost trembling at the renewal of his own proposition.

“I think not, my dear,” Lady Amelia had answered.  “Mamma is not very particular; but there are little things, you know—­”

“Oh, yes, of course,” said Mr Gazebee; and then the conversation had been dropped.  He would most willingly have entertained his august mother-in-law during her visit to the metropolis, and yet her presence in his house would have made him miserable as long as she remained there.

But for a week Alexandrina sojourned under Mr Gazebee’s roof, during which time Crosbie was made happy with all the delights of an expectant bridegroom.  Of course he was given to understand that he was to dine at the Gazebees’ every day, and spend all his evenings there; and, under the circumstances, he had no excuse for not doing so.  Indeed, at the present moment, his hours would otherwise have hung heavily enough upon his hands.  In spite of his bold resolution with reference to his eye, and his intention not to be debarred from the pleasures of society by the marks of the late combat, he had not, since that occurrence, frequented his club very