propose; she
was chagrined at not having noticed a courtship which had been carried
on under her very eyes; she was troubled at the thought that the
marriage would entail the separation from one who was to her as a child.

How weary she would find it to walk alone down the long paths of old
age! how hard it was to be deprived of a dear arm on whose support she
had reckoned for when "the slow dark hours begin"! But she thrust this
reflection away from her as selfish, and contrition for having harboured
it found expression in a hand wrinkled and roughened by hard wear, which
stole into Anastasia's.

"My dear," she said, "I am very glad at your good fortune; this is a
great thing that has befallen you." A general content that Anastasia
should have received a proposal silenced her misgivings.

To the recipient, an offer of marriage, be it good, bad, or indifferent,
to be accepted or to be refused, brings a certain complacent
satisfaction. She may pretend to make light of it, to be displeased at
it, to resent it, as did Anastasia; but in her heart of hearts there
lurks the self-appreciating reflection that she has won the completest
admiration of a man. If he be a man that she would not marry under any
conditions, if he be a fool, or a spendthrift, or an evil-liver, he is
still a man, and she has captured him. Her relations share in the same
pleasurable reflections. If the offer is accepted, then a future has
been provided for one whose future, maybe, was not too certain; if it is
declined, then they congratulate themselves on the high morale or strong
common-sense of a kinswoman who refuses to be won by gold, or to link
her destiny with an unsuitable partner.

"It is a great thing, my dear, that has befallen you," Miss Joliffe
repeated. "I wish you all happiness, dear Anastasia, and may all
blessings wait upon you in this engagement."

"Aunt," interrupted her niece, "please don't say that. I have refused
him, _of course_; how could you think that I should marry Mr Westray?
I never have thought of any such thing with him. I never had the least
idea of his writing like this."

"You have refused him?" said the elder lady with a startled emphasis.
Again a selfish reflection crossed her mind--they were not to be parted
after all--and again she put it resolutely away. She ran over in her
mind all the possible objections that could have influenced her niece in
arriving at such a conclusion. Religion was the keynot