"
"I forget nothing, my dear girl. But there is no parallel between your
case and mine. For a man, age is nothing--for a woman, everything; and
I regret to be obliged to remember that you are approaching your
thirtieth birthday. Fortunately, you don't look more than seven-and-
twenty; and I really think, if you play your cards well, you may secure
this country rector. A country rector is not much for a woman who has
set her cap at a duke, but he is better than nothing; and as the case
is really growing rather desperate, you must play your cards with
unusual discrimination this time, Lydia. You must, upon my word."
"I am tired of playing my cards," answered Miss Graham, contemptuously.
"It seems as if life was always to be a losing game for me, let me play
my cards how I will. I begin to think there is a curse upon me, and
that no act of mine will ever prosper. Who was that man, in your Greek
play, who guessed some inane conundrum, and was always getting into
trouble afterwards? I begin to think there really is a fatality in
these things."
She turned away from her brother impatiently, and seated herself at her
piano. She played a few bars of a waltz with a listless air, while the
captain lighted a cigar, and stepped out upon the little balcony,
overhanging the dull, foggy street.
The brother and sister occupied lodgings in one of the narrow streets
of Mayfair.
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