"You seem in a regular fix!" said Lord Bobby with much sympathy.
"Every one I consult is so old and wise, and knows so well the value of outside things. Does everybody grow worldly as they grow older, I wonder?"
"Everybody except mothers," answered Bobby simply. "They never get old or wise or anything horrid."
"But I haven't got a mother," said Isabel, with a little catch in her voice.
"Poor little girl!" said Bobby, and there were tears in his honest blue eyes.
"You see," continued Isabel, "if I marry Paul, the frivolous side of me may come to the front when it is too late, and I may spoil his life by becoming a dissatisfied and grumbling wife."
Bobby nodded.
"While, on the other hand, if I let him go, I shall become hard and shallow and worldly, and the best part of my nature will die of starvation. Oh! Bobby, what am I to do?"
Bobby thought profoundly for several seconds; then he said: "Seaton is a good fellow, there is no doubt of that; but the question just now is not what is he in himself, but how much does he count for in your estimate of life?"
"That is just what I want to find out," sighed Isabel.