to which we fly when banished from the old. Credit!--the true charity of
Providence, by which they who otherwise would starve live in plenty, and
despise the indigent rich. Credit!--admirable system, alike for those who
live on it and the wiser few who live by it. Will you borrow some money
of me, Godolphin?"

"At what percentage?"

"Why, let me see: funds are low; I'll be moderate. But stay; be it with
you as I did with George Sinclair. You shall have all you want, and pay
me with a premium, when you marry an heiress. Why, roan, you wince at the
word 'marry!'"

"'Tis a sore subject, Saville: one that makes a man think of halters."

"You are right--I recognise my young pupil. Your old play-writers talked
nonsense when they said men lost liberty of person by marriage. Men lose
liberty, but it is the liberty of the mind. We cease to be independent of
the world's word, when we grow respectable with a wife, a fat butler, two
children, and a family coach. It makes a gentleman little better than a
grocer or a king! But you have seen Constance Vernon. Why, out on this
folly, Godolphin! You turn away. Do you fancy that I did not penetrate
your weakness the moment you mentioned her name?--still less, do you
fancy, my dear young friend, that I, who have lived through nearly half a
century, and know our nature, and the whole thermometer of our blood,
think one jot the worse of you for forming a caprice, or a passion, if you
will--for a woman who would set an anchoret, or, what is still colder, a
worn out debauchee, on fire? Bah! Godolphin, I am wiser than you take me
for. And I will tell you more. For your sake, I am _happy_ that you have
incurred already this, our common folly (which we all have once in a