"And you have not repeated the experiment?"

"No. There"s no need. I know my capacity to a gla.s.s now."

"Then you know something really worth knowing," remarked Jimmy Marrable with sincerity. "Now, what are you going to do with yourself? Why not go and see the world a bit? You have always wanted to. And do it thoroughly while you are about it. Take five years over it; ten if you like. You _will_ like, you know. It"s in the blood. That"s why I think you are wise not to want to enter the Service. You can always sc.r.a.pe in somewhere if there _is_ a war, and barrack-life in time of peace would corrode your very heart out. It nearly killed your dad at five-and-twenty. That was why he exchanged and took to the Frontier, and ended his days in command of a Goorkha regiment. Life at first hand; that"s what we Marrables thrive on! I never set foot in this country myself between the ages of twenty and thirty-three. I would come with you again if it wasn"t for Anno Domini--and the nippers. But you"ll find a good many old friends of mine dotted about the world. They"re not all folk I could give you letters of introduction to--some of "em don"t speak English and others can"t read and write; but they"ll show you the ropes better than any courier. You take my advice, and go. England is no place for a young man with money and no particular profession, until he"s over thirty and ready to marry. Will you go, Hughie?"

Hughie"s expression showed that he was considering the point rather reluctantly. His uncle continued:--

"Money all right, I suppose? You have eight hundred a-year now you are of age. Got any debts, eh? I"ll help you."

"None to speak of. Thanks all the same."

"Well; why not go?"

"I should like to go more than anything," said Hughie slowly, "but--"

"Well?"

"I don"t know--that is--"

"I _do_," said Jimmy Marrable with characteristic frankness. "You are struggling between an instinct which tells you to do the sensible thing and an overpowering desire to do a dashed silly one."

Hughie grew very red.

His uncle continued:--

"You want to marry that girl."

Hughie blazed up.

"I do," he said, rather defiantly.

The cigar glowed undisturbedly.

"You think that life has no greater happiness to offer you?"

"I am sure of it," said Hughie, with an air of one stating a simple truth.

"And you are twenty-one?"

"Ye--es," with less fire.

Jimmy Marrable smoked reflectively for a few minutes.

"I am an old bachelor," he said at last, "and old bachelors are supposed to know nothing about love-affairs. The truth of course is that they know far more than any one else."

Hughie was accustomed to these _obiter dicta_.

"Why?" he asked dutifully.

"Well, for the same reason that a broken swashbuckler knows a deal more about soldiering than a duly enrolled private of the line. He has had a more varied experience. The longer a man remains a bachelor the more he learns about women; and the more he learns about women the better able he will be to make his way in the world. Therefore, if he marries young he reduces his chances of success in life to a minimum. The sad part about it all is that, provided he gets the girl he wants, he doesn"t care. That, by the way, is the reason why nearly all the most famous men in history have either been unhappily married or not married at all.

Happiness has no history. Happily married men are never ambitious. They don"t go toiling and panting after--"

"They have no need to," said Hughie. "A man doesn"t go on running after a tram-car after he has caught it."

"That begs the question, Hughie. It presumes that all the available happiness in the world is contained in one particular tram-car. Besides, the tram-cars you mean are intended for men over thirty. The young ought to walk."

Hughie realised that the conversation was growing rather too subtle for him, and reverted to plain cut and thrust.

"Then you think no man should marry before thirty?" he said.

"Nothing of the kind! It depends on the man. If he is a steady, decent, average sort of fellow, who regards a ledger as a Bible and an office-stool as a stepping-stone to the summit of the universe, and possesses no particular apt.i.tude for the rough-and-tumble of life, the sooner he marries and settles down as a contented old pram-pusher the better for him and the nation. Do you fancy yourself in that line, Hughie?"

"No-o-o," said Hughie reluctantly. "But I might learn," he added hopefully. "I"m a pretty adaptable bloke."

Jimmy Marrable threw his cigar-end out of the window, and sat up.

"Listen, Hughie," he said, "and I"ll tell you what you _really_ are. You are the son of a mother who climbed out of her bedroom window (and let herself down a rain-pipe that I wouldn"t have trusted a monkey on) in order to elope with the man she loved. Your father was the commander of as tough a native regiment as I have ever known. Your grandfather was an explorer. I"ve been a bit of a rolling-stone myself. About one relation of yours in three dies in his bed. You come of a stock which prefers to go and see things for itself rather than read about them in the newspaper, and which has acquired a considerable knowledge of the art of handling men in the process. Those are rather rare a.s.sets. If you take a woman in tow at the tender age of twenty-one, there will be a disaster.

Either you will sit at home and eat your heart out, or you will go abroad and leave her to eat out hers. Am I talking sense?"

Hughie sighed like a furnace.

"Yes, confound you!" he said.

"Will you promise not to rush into matrimony, then?"

"Perhaps she"ll wait for me," mused Hughie.

"How old is she?"

"Twenty-one, like me."

"H"m," remarked Jimmy Marrable drily. "That means that she is for all practical purposes ten years your senior. However, perhaps she will.

Pigs might fly. But will you promise me to think the matter over very carefully before deciding not to go abroad?"

"Yes," said Hughie.

"That being the case," continued his uncle briskly, "I want to tell you one or two things. If you do go, I may never see you again."

"I say," said Hughie in alarm, "there"s nothing wrong with your health, is there, old man?"

"Bless you, no! But once a Marrable takes to the wilds Methuselah himself couldn"t reckon on living long enough to see him again. So I am going to talk to you while I"ve got you. I am taking this opportunity of being near town to see my solicitor and make my will. I am fit enough, but I am fifty this year; and at that age a man ought to make some disposition of his property. I may as well tell you that I have left you nothing. Annoyed?"

"Not in the least."

"And I have left nothing to Master Lance."

Hughie looked a little surprised at this.

"I mean to start him on his own legs before my demise," explained Jimmy Marrable. "Immediately, in fact. That is partly what I am going up to town for. I am investing a sum for him which ought to bring him in about two hundred a year for the rest of his life. He"s nearly sixteen now, and he"ll have to administer his income himself--pay his own school-bills and everything. Just as I made you do. Nothing like accustoming a boy to handling money when he"s young. Then he doesn"t go a mucker when he suddenly comes into a lot of it. I shan"t give him more, because it would prevent him from working. Two hundred won"t. A slug would perhaps live contentedly enough on it, but Lancelot Wellesley Gaymer is a pretentious young sweep, and he"ll work in order to gain the means for making a splash. The two hundred will keep him going till he finds his feet."