JVYLDER'S HAJVD. 61
garden. They had not walked far, when Lake suddenly
said —
"What do you think of all this, Radie—this particu-
lar version, I mean, of marriage, d-la-mode, they are
preparing up there?" and he made a little dip of his
cane towards Brandon Hall, over his shoulder. "I
really don't think Wylder cares twopence about her, or
she about him," and Stanley Lake laughed gently and
sleepily.
"I don't think they pretend to like one another. It
was all, you know, old Lady Chelford's arrangement;
and Dorcas is so supine, I believe she would allow her-
self to be given away by any one. and to any one, rather
than be at the least trouble. She provokes me."
"But I thought she liked Sir Harry Bracton: he's a
good-looking fellow; and Queen's Bracton is a very nice
thing, you know."
"Yes, so they said; but that would, I think, have
been worse. Something may be made of Mark Wylder.
He has some sense and caution, has not he?—but Sir
Harry is wickedness itself!"
"Why — what has Sir Harry done? That is the way
you women run away with things! If a fellow's been a
little bit wild, he's Beelzebub at once. Bracton's a very
good fellow, I can assure you."
The fact is, Captain Lake, an accomplished player,
made a pretty little revenue of Sir Harry's billiards,
which were wild and noisy; and liking his money, thought
he liked himself—a confusion not uncommon.
"I don't know, and can't say, how you fine gentlemen
define wickedness; only, as an obscure female, I speak
according to my lights: and he is generally thought the
wickedest man in this county."
"Well, you know, Radie, women like wicked fellows -