Charles was perfectly right when he said Fortune had made an April fool
of him. He should have accepted the ill omen of Valentine morning, for
it was certainly very unlucky to mock the God of Love with a false
pledge of affection. He was never intended for Phyllida. As Betty
rightly pointed out, they were too much alike. Pray do not suppose that
he was not an utterly miserable man for a long time. He was; but, in
compensation for being born a poet, he possessed the latter's faculty
for enshrining a reality in a sentiment. Phyllida came in time to stand
for the symbol of elusive youth. During his retreat abroad he suddenly
discovered that what he suspected was true, he had grown old. His father
had enjoyed a perennial inducement to commit foolish actions in the
quiet disapproval of his wife. Charles, however, in receipt of a
handsome allowance from his uncle found he no longer had the slightest
inclination to play. Wine had never attracted him save in moments of
high excitement and he was willing to let his love for Phyllida occupy
for ever the sacred inmost shrine of his heart.
Clare remained with him as long as he thought Charles needed his
company, but word arriving that his cousin had died, he returned to
Devonshire, and in the following year you might have read in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ 'Sir Anthony Clare of Clare Court, Devon, to Miss
Arabella Hopley with L10,000.'
To the end of his days he always said that if he lived his youth over
again, he should not have acted otherwise than he did upon the first of
April 17--. But Tony Clare was obstinate in many ways, and, as I
believe, never admitted the virtue of even a new manure very willingly.
Before Clare left Charles had received a letter from Beau Ripple
inviting him to reside once more at Curtain Wells.
"That is impossible," said Tony stiffly.
"I suppose it is."
"You forget that foolish satire."
"I take it that Ripple intends me to succeed him as King of the Wells."
"The publication of _Curtain Polls_ has made that impossible."
"I don't know. It might incline them to respect me."
Charles was very lonely in Paris after Tony had gone, and when war broke
out again, he decided to go back to England. Just before he started he
received a second epistle from the Beau.