We know what was the mode which now, at this moment, was suggesting itself to him. He was proposing to himself, as the best thing that he could do, to take away another man's wife and make himself happy with her! What he had said to Vavasor as to disregarding Lady Glencora's money had been perfectly true. That in the event of her going off with him, some portion of her enormous wealth would still cling to her, he did believe. Seeing that she had no children he could not understand where else it should all go. But he thought of this as it regarded her, not as it regarded him. When he had before made his suit to her,--a suit which was then honourable, however disadvantageous it might have seemed to be to her--he had made in his mind certain calculations as to the good things which would result to him if he were successful He would keep hounds, and have three or four horses every day for his own riding, and he would have no more interviews with Magruin, waiting in that rogue's dingy back parlour for many a weary wretched half-hour, till the rogue should be pleased to show himself. So far he had been mercenary; but he had learned to love the girl, and to care more for her than for her money, and when the day of disappointment came upon him,--the day on which she had told him that all between them was to be over for ever,--he had, for a few hours, felt the loss of his love more than the loss of his money.

And the way to this better life was to take away another man's wife and make himself happy with her! What he had said to Vavasor about disregarding Lady Glencora's money had been perfectly true. He believed that if she went off with him, some portion of her enormous wealth would still cling to her. But whereas his previous advances had been mercenary, he had learned to love the girl, and to care more for her than for her money.
