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Rh flection that in Great Britain we are supposed to be three females against every male? No wonder men think so much of themselves; no wonder it is considered more honourable in a young woman to possess as betrothed, or lord, ever so pock-marked, broken-winded, weak-kneed, soft-brained a man, than none at all! And Fate, with her unfair fashion of lumping her favours, has a bad knack of giving two or three lovers to one girl who wants none of them, and never a one to another girl who would say thank you for any little mannikin.

"Dolly seems to be amusing herself very well," says George; and I look across to where she sits, soft and round and fresh as the pink roses that lie half on her brown hair, half on her white lace bonnet. Dolly has exquisite blue eyes, and out of them she is looking up, half shyly, half pleasantly, at a very tall, good-looking young man, whom one would, at a moderate guess, suppose to be a trifle shorter than Chang.

"He is a giant," I say looking at the man, not Dolly. "Why, he must be eight feet."

"Not quite," says George; "in fact, he is only six feet four and a half. He is Molyneux, of the Fifth."

"I wish they would stand up; I should like to see what they look like together," I say, with interest. "Dolly was measured yesterday, and she is exactly four feet eleven!"

"And she will bowl him over like a nine-pin," says George. "Those little bits of women always bewitch these big men."

"They would look very nice if they went to a fancy dress ball; he as Tom Thumb, and she as the Kentucky giantess, would they not? But I do hope he will not be falling in love with Dolly."

"Why not?"

"Because," I say, thoughtfully, "I have a plan in my head about Dolly; I have made up my mind whom I should like her to marry."