herself, with all her property, to
him,--Maguire,--a few months ago, Mr Maguire felt fully convinced,
and, as I have said before, had some ground for such conviction. He
had learned also from Miss Colza, that Miss Mackenzie had certainly
quarrelled with Lady Ball, and that she had, so Miss Colza believed,
been turned out of the house at the Cedars. Whether Mr Ball had or
had not abandoned his matrimonial prospects, Miss Colza could not
quite determine. Having made up her mind to hate Miss Mackenzie, and
therefore, as was natural, thinking that no gentleman could really
like such "a poor dowdy creature," she rather thought that he had
abandoned his matrimonial prospects. Mr Maguire had thus learned much
on the subject; but he had not learned this:--that John Ball was
honest throughout in the matter, and that the lawyers employed in it
were honest also.

And now, having got together all this information, and he himself
being in a somewhat precarious condition as to his own affairs, Mr
Maguire resolved upon using his information boldly. He had a not
incorrect idea of the fitness of things, and did not fail to tell
himself that were he at that moment in possession of those clerical
advantages which his labours in the vineyard should have earned
for him, he would not have run the risk which he must undoubtedly
incur by engaging himself in this matter. Had he a full church
at Littlebath depending on him, had Mr Stumfold's chance and Mr
Stumfold's success been his, had he still even been an adherent of
the Stumfoldian fold, he would have paused before he rushed to the
public with an account of Miss Mackenzie's grievance. But as matters
stood with him, looking round upon his own horizon, he did not
see that he had any course before him more likely to lead to good
pecuniary results, than this.

The reader has been told how Mr Maguire went to Arundel Street,
and how he was there received. But that reception did not at all
daunt his courage. It showed him that the lady was still under the
Ball influence, and that his ally, Miss Colza, was probably wrong
in supposing that the Ball marriage was altogether off. But this
only made him the more determined to undermine that influence, and
to prevent that marriage. If he could once succeed in convincing
the lady that her best chance of regaining her fortune lay in his
assistance, or if he could even convince her that his interference
must result, either with or without her good wishes