her, my dears.«
    Meanwhile there was a fear that he would lose his chance of marrying the
beautiful Miss Durham.
    The dilemmas of little princes are often grave. They should be dwelt on now
and then for an example to poor struggling commoners of the slings and arrows
assailing fortune's most favoured men, that we may preach contentment to the
wretch who cannot muster wherewithal to marry a wife, or has done it and trots
the streets, pack-laden, to maintain the dame and troops of children painfully
reared to fill subordinate stations. According to our reading, a moral is always
welcome in a moral country, and especially so when silly envy is to be chastised
by it, the restless craving for change rebuked. Young Sir Willoughby, then,
stood in this dilemma: - a lady was at either hand of him; the only two that had
ever, apart from metropolitan conquests, not to be recited, touched his
emotions. Susceptible to beauty, he had never seen so beautiful a girl as
Constantia Durham. Equally susceptible to admiration of himself, he considered
Lætitia Dale a paragon of cleverness. He stood between the queenly rose and the
modest violet. One he bowed to; the other bowed to him. He could not have both;
it is the law governing princes and pedestrians alike. But which could he
forfeit? His growing acquaintance with the world taught him to put an increasing
price on the sentiments of Miss Dale. Still Constantia's beauty was of a kind to
send away beholders aching. She had the glory of the racing cutter full sail on
a winning breeze; and she did not court to win him, she flew. In his more
reflective hour the attractiveness of that lady which held the mirror to his
features was paramount. But he had passionate snatches when the magnetism of the
flyer drew him in her wake. Further to add to the complexity, he loved his
liberty; he was princelier free; he had more subjects, more slaves; he ruled
arrogantly in the world of women; he was more himself. His metropolitan
experiences did not answer to his liking the particular question, Do we bind the
woman down to us idolatrously by making a wife of her?
    In the midst of his deliberations, a report of the hot pursuit of Miss
Durham, casually mentioned to him by Lady Busshe, drew an immediate proposal
from Sir Willoughby. She accepted him, and they were engaged. She had been
nibbled at, all but eaten up, while he hung dubitative; and though that was the
cause of his winning her, it offended his niceness.