"Not for a confirmed pessimist," I said. "Every hour brings release nearer."
"I shall have to get married, you know," he observed reflectively.
"As one goes misère in Nap?" I inquired.
He was really thinking aloud and quite properly ignored my question.
"I suppose it's the right thing to do," he said. "The Cardinal's my heir at present, and after him there's no one to succeed. George, it must be a damned uncomfortable state, in spite of the novelists. Think of having a woman always living with you——"
"According to the modern novelists," I said, "they always live with someone else."
"Well, even that seems uncomfortable."
"For you or the other man? It depends on the wife, and in any case I don't know that you need consider him except on broad humanitarian principles. Jim, if I may advise you, don't be glamoured by the idea of being faithful to one woman all your life. You have formed certain habits——"
"My dear George, don't rub it in! I don't envy the woman who marries me. But I'm not likely to grow more domesticated by remaining a bachelor."
"Have you anyone in mind?" I asked, as I poured myself out a cup of tea.