"Well, perhaps I didn't do him justice. He isn't such a bad fellow in his way, you know. He drinks too much and he's stupid and spoilt, but he's quite good-natured and amiable with it. I have no doubt Molly can twist him round her finger; and I suppose there's a certain attraction in having a king trotting around after you—even if he is out of a job. No doubt it annoys the other girls." 

 "As a bachelor, my dear boy," said Lady Jocelyn, "you have no right to be so well acquainted with feminine weaknesses."  She paused.  "You know you really ought to get married, Tony," she added, "if only to circulate your income." 

 Tony laughed.  "You have hit on my one strong point as a capitalist," he said.  "You ask Guy, Aunt Fanny!" 

 "But you can't spend forty thousand a year by yourself—surely?" 

 "Oh, I get a little help now and then. I don't know that I really want it though. It's wonderful what one can do with practice and a steam yacht." 

 "It's not nearly as wonderful as what you could do with a wife," said Lady Jocelyn.  "Anyhow you ought to get married if only to please me. I shall soon be too old for travelling about, and then I shall want some really naughty children to give me an interest in life. I shall never be interested in Henry's twins: they are such dreadful little prigs." 

 Tony got up from his chair and taking the old lady's slender, much beringed hand raised it to his lips. 

 "If you feel like that, Aunt Fanny," he said, "I shall certainly have to think about it. You won't mind who she is, I suppose?" 

 "I only make two stipulations," said Lady Jocelyn. "She mustn't be a German and she mustn't wear squeaky boots." 

 Tony laughed.  "All right, Aunt Fanny," he said.  "I can promise you that safely." 

 He walked to the window and glanced down into Chester Square where a huge venomous-looking, two-seated Peugot was filling up the roadway. 

 "I must toddle away now," he observed.  "I want to run up to the Club, and see that everything's all right for to-morrow night, and then I must get back home and change. I have promised to go to this fancy dress dance at the Albert Hall, and it will take me a long time to look like Charles the Second." 

 Lady Jocelyn leaned forward and rang the bell. "Come 

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