will you refuse it now, when my errand here is to seek an even nearer
and a dearer name?"

"You are welcome, ever welcome to my humble home, my dear boy, for your
own sake, and for those dear to you," replied Grahame, with a return of
former warmth and cordiality. "More than usually welcome I may say,
Edward, as this is your first visit here since your rescue from the
bowels of the great deep. You look confused and heated, and as if you
would much rather run after your old companion than stay with me, but
indeed I cannot spare you yet, I have so many questions to ask you."

"Forgive me, Mr. Grahame, but indeed you must hear me first."

"I came here to speak to you on a subject nearest my heart, and till
that is told, till from your lips I know my fate, do not, for pity, ask
me to speak on any other. I meant not to have entered so abruptly on my
mission, but that which Mr. Myrvin has imparted to me, and what I
undesignedly overheard as I stood unseen on that terrace, have taken
from me all the eloquence with which I meant to plead my cause."

"Speak in your own proper person, Edward, and then I may perhaps hear
you," replied Grahame, from whom the sight of his young friend appeared
to have banished all misanthropy. "What I can, however, have to do with
your fate, I know not, except that I will acquit you of all intentional
eaves-dropping, if it be that which troubles you; and what can Mr.
Myrvin have said to rob you of eloquence?"

"He told me that--that you had encouraged Philip Clapperton's addresses
to Lil--to Miss Grahame," answered Edward, with increasing agitation,
for he perceived, what was indeed the truth, that Grahame had not the
least idea of his intentions.

"And what can that have to do with you, young man?" inquired Grahame,
somewhat haughtily, and his brow darkened. "You have not seen Lilla, to
be infected with her prejudices, and in what manner can my wishes with
regard to my daughter on that head concern you?"

"In what manner? Mr. Grahame, I came hither with my aunt's and uncle's
blessing on my purpose, to seek from you your gentle daughter's hand. I
am not a man of many words, and all I had to say appears to have
departed, and left me speechless. I came here to implore your consent,
for without it I knew 'twere vain to think or hope to make your Lilla
mine. I came to plead to you, and armed with your blessing, plead my
cause to her, and you ask me how Mr. Myrvin's intelligence can affect
me. S