d possibly be
for your wanting to become acquainted with a man who had been engaged to
the lady you wished to marry, if you didn't intend to study him up, and
try to do better yourself."

"My motive in desiring to become acquainted with Mr Keswick," said
Lawrence, "is one you could scarcely understand, and all I can say about
it is, that I believed that if I knew the gentleman who had formerly
been the accepted lover of a lady, I should better know the lady."

"You must be awfully suspicious," said she.

"No, I am not," he answered, "and I knew you would not understand me. My
only desire in speaking to you upon this subject is that you may not
unreasonably judge me."

"But I am not unreasonable," said Annie. "You are trying to get Miss
March away from my cousin; and I don't think it is fair, and I don't
want you to do it. When you were here before, I thought you two were
good friends, but now I don't believe it."

How friendly might be the relations between himself and Keswick, when
the latter should read his letter about the Candy affair, and should
know that he was in this house with Miss March, Lawrence could not say;
but he did not allude to this point in his companion's remarks. "I do
not think," he said, "that you have any reason to object to my
endeavoring to win Miss March. Even if she accepts me, it will be to the
advantage of your cousin, because if he still hopes to obtain her, the
sooner he knows he cannot do so, the better it will be for him. My
course is perfectly fair. I am aware that the lady is not at present
engaged to any one, and I am endeavoring to induce her to engage herself
to me. If I fail, then I step aside."

"Entirely aside, and out of the way?" asked Mrs Null.

"Entirely," answered Lawrence.

"Well," said Annie, leaning back in her chair, in which before she had
been sitting very upright, "you have, at last, given me a good deal of
your confidence; almost as much as I gave you. Some of the things you
say I believe, others I don't."

Lawrence was annoyed, but he would not allow himself to get angry. "I am
not accustomed to being disbelieved," he said, gravely. "It is a very
unusual experience, I assure you. Which of my statements do you doubt?"

"I don't believe," said Annie, "that you will give her up if she rejects
you while you are here. You are too wilful. You will follow her, and try
again."

"Mrs Null," said Lawrence, "I do not feel justified in speaking to a
third person