'Well, now I think,' said Venetia, 'of all the persons I know, there is no one so qualified for domestic happiness as yourself. I think your wife, George, would be a very fortunate woman, and I only wish I had a sister, that you might marry her.'
'I wish you had, Venetia; I would give up my resolution against marriage directly.'
'Alas!' said Venetia, 'there is always some bitter drop in the cup of life. Must you indeed go, George?'
'My present departure is inevitable,' he replied; 'but I have some thoughts of giving up my profession and Parliament, and then I will return, never to leave you again.'
'What will Lord —— say? That will never do,' said Venetia. 'No; I should not be content unless you prospered in the world, George. You are made to prosper, and I should be miserable if you sacrificed your existence to us. You must go home, and you must marry, and write letters to us by every post, and tell us what a happy man you are. The best thing for you to do would be to live with your wife at the abbey; or Cherbury, if you liked. You see I settle everything.'
'I never will marry,' said Captain Cadurcis, seriously.
'Yes you will,' said Venetia.
'I am quite serious, Venetia. Now, mark my words, and remember this day. I never will marry. I have a reason, and a strong and good one, for my resolution.'
'What is it?'
'Because my marriage will destroy the intimacy that subsists between me and yourself, and Plantagenet,' he added.