re."

"I hope you won't lose money, Will."

"No;--not ultimately, that is. I shall get the place in good
condition, and I shall have paid myself when he goes, in that way,
if in no other. Besides, what's a little money? I owe it to them for
robbing her of her inheritance."

"You do not rob her, Will."

"It is hard upon her, though."

"Does she feel it hard?"

"Whatever may be her feelings on such a matter, she is a woman much
too proud to show them."

"I wish I knew whether you liked her or not."

"I do like her,--I love her better than any one in the world; better
even than you, Mary; for I have asked her to be my wife."

"Oh, Will!"

"And she has refused me. Now you know the whole of it,--the whole
history of what I have done while I have been away." And he stood
up before her, with his thumbs thrust into the arm-holes of his
waistcoat, with something serious and almost solemn in his gait, in
spite of a smile which played about his mouth.

"Oh, Will!"

"I meant to have told you, of course, Mary,--to have told you
everything; but I did not mean to tell it to-night; only it has
somehow fallen from me. Out of the full heart the mouth speaks, they
say."

"I never can like her if she refuses your love."

"Why not? That is unlike you, Mary. Why should she be bound to love
me because I love her?"

"Is there any one else, Will?"

"How can I tell? I did not ask her. I would not have asked her for
the world, though I would have given the world to know."

"And she is so very beautiful?"

"Beautiful! It isn't that so much;--though she is beautiful.
But,--but,--I can't tell you why,--but she is the only girl that
I ever saw who would suit me for a wife. Oh, dear!"

"My own Will!"

"But I'm not going to keep you up all night, Mary. And I'll tell you
something else; I'm not going to break my heart for love. And I'll
tell you something else again; I'm not going to give it up yet. I
believe I've been a fool. Indeed, I know I've been a fool. I went
about it just as if I were buying a horse, and had told the seller
that that was my price,--he might take it or leave it. What right had
I to suppose that any girl was to be had in that way; much less such
a girl as Clara Amedroz?"

"It would have been a great match for her."

"I'm not so sure of that, Mary. Her education has been different from
mine, and it may well be that she should marry above me. But I swear
I will not speak another word to you to-night.