"Why should I, Leycester; they cost a great deal of money, but if they amuse you, why——" and she shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"They do cost a great deal of money," he said, with a laugh, "but I don't know that they amuse me very much. I don't think anything amuses me very greatly."
Then the countess looked at him.
"When a man talks like that, Leycester, it generally means that it is time he was married!"
He half expected what was coming, but he looked grave; nevertheless he turned to her with a smile.
"Isn't that rather a desperate remedy, my lady?" he said. "I can give up my horses if they cease to amuse me and bore me too much; I can give up most of the other so-called amusements, but marriage—supposing that should fail? It would be rather serious."
"Why should it fail?"
"It does sometimes," he retorted, gravely.
"Not when love enters into it," she answered, gently.
He was silent, his eyes bent on the ground, from which seemed to rise a slim, girlish figure, with Stella's face and eyes.