ailway journey till they had retired for the night.

"You know I could not answer otherwise, Jane; I did not love him; do
not be angry with me," said Elsie, apologetically.

"Angry with you my dear child! No, I honour you," said Jane.

"You see Jane, I have been so unhappy, so ill, and so low-spirited,
that I could easily have snatched at an escape from this dreary life,
and said I would marry him; but he would have been so disappointed when
he came to know me."

"You do not love him now, Elsie, but could you not have learned to love
him? It is not to be supposed that a girl has a ready-made attachment
to be given to the first man who sees fit to ask her; she must take a
little time."

"But, Jane, though he has been very kind to us, you know--you remember
Peggy, and what she said about him?"

Jane nodded assent.

"I know I have been rude about it. I ought to have said much that I
felt, but when girls say such things they either give more pain
afterwards, or get committed. Oh! Jane, tell me again that I have been
right."

"Right? yes," said Jane, thoughtfully. "Perhaps you ought to have a man
of more fixed principles, if he could be had. But Elsie, my darling, it
is not who we ought to have in the world, but who will have us; reflect
that you may never have such an offer, or, indeed, another offer of any
kind, again. I do not mean to bias your judgment, my own dear sister.
Only think--he has, as you say, been very kind. He is not faultless;
but who is? As for Peggy's story, that was many years ago; and, so far
as I can judge from our friends here, he bears an excellent character.
We should not condemn a man for life on account of something wrong
done, or, as in this case, only purposed, when very young, and in
circumstances of temptation which you and I, perhaps, can scarcely
appreciate. He took Peggy's first answer in a right spirit, and you can
see how he respects her. All I have seen of him since I came to London,
has disposed me to think favourably of him. His temper is the finest in
the world, I think."

"Finer than Francis'?" said Elsie, who knew her sister's very great
regard for her cousin, and never fancied she could think any man his
superior in any point.

"Yes, sunnier than Francis'."

"But he is not half so clever or so cultivated," remonstrated Elsie.

"His cleverness lies in a different direction."

"I think him inferior to Francis in every way," said Elsie, "and that
weighed with me in gi