That night the two Carnegies slept very little. They were both in love, very seriously in love; and anybody who has ever been in the same condition must have noticed that the symptoms, which may have been very moderate or undecided during the course of the evening, become rapidly more pronounced and violent as you lie awake in the solitude of your chamber through the night watches. But more than that, they had both begun to feel simultaneously the stab of jealousy. Each of them had been very much taken indeed by Isabel Walters; still, if they had seen no chance of a rival looming in the distance, they might have been content to wait a little, to see a little more of her, to make quite sure of their own affection before plunging headlong into a declaration.[Pg 143] After all, it\'s very absurd to ask a girl to be your companion for life on the strength of an acquaintanceship which has extended over the time occupied by three dances in a single evening. But then, thought each, there was the chance of Ernest\'s proposing to her, or of Harold\'s proposing to her, before I do. That idea made precipitancy positively imperative; and by the next morning each of the young men had fully made up his mind to take the first opportunity of asking Isabella Walters to be his wife.
Breakfast passed off very silently, neither of the twins speaking much to one another; but nobody noticed their reticence much; for the morning after the occasional orgy or dance is apt to prove a very limp affair indeed in professional homes, where dances are not of nightly occurrence. After breakfast, Harold went off quickly to the office, and Ernest, having bespoken a holiday at the hospital, joined his sister and Nellie Holt in the library.
"Do you know, Ernest," Edie said to him, mindful of her last night\'s conversation with her other brother, "I really believe Harold has fallen desperately in love at first sight with that tall Miss Walters."
"I can easily believe it," Ernest answered testily; "she\'s very handsome and very clever."
Edie raised her eyebrows a little. "But it\'s awfully foolish, Ernest, to fall in love blindfold in that way, isn\'t it now?" she said, with a searching look at her brother. "He can\'t possibly know what sort of a girl she really is from half an hour\'s conversation in a ballroom."
"For my part, I don\'t at all agree with you, Edie," said Ernest, in his coldest manner. "I don\'t believe there\'s any right way of falling in love except at first sight. If a girl is going to please you, she ought to please you instantaneously and instinctively; at least, so I think. It isn\'t a thing to be thought about and reasoned about, but a thing to be felt and apprehended intuitively. I couldn\'t[Pg 144] reason myself into marrying a girl, and what\'s more, I don\'t want to."
He sat down to the table, took out a sheet or two of initialed notepaper, and began writing a couple of letters. One of them, which he marked "Private" in the corner, ran as follows:—
"My dear Miss Walters,
"Perhaps you will think it very odd of me to venture upon writing to you on the strength of such a very brief and casual acquaintance as that begun last night; but I have a particular reason for doing so, which I think I can justify to you when I see you. You mentioned to me that you were asked to the Montagus\' steam-launch expedition up the river from Surbiton to-morrow; but I understood you to say you did not intend to accept the invitation. I write now to beg of you to be there, as I am going, and I am particularly anxious to meet you and have a little conversation with you on a subject of importance. I know you are not a very conventional person, and therefore I think you will excuse me for asking this favour of you. Please don\'t take the trouble to write in reply; but answer by going to the Montagus\', and I shall then be able to explain this very queer letter. In haste,
"Yours very truly,
"Ernest Carnegie."
He read this note two or three times over to himself, looking not very well satisfied with its contents; and then at last, with the air of a man who determines to plunge and stake all upon a single venture, he folded it up and put it in its envelope. "It\'ll mystify her a little, no doubt," he thought to himself; "and being a woman, she\'ll be naturally anxious to unravel the mystery. But of course she\'ll know I mean to make her an offer, and[Pg 145] perhaps she\'ll think me a perfect idiot for not doing it outright, instead of beating about the............