, in dividing her
altogether from the Ball alliance, then she would be almost compelled
to throw herself into his arms. That she was violently in love with
him he did not suppose, nor did he think it at all more probable that
she should be violently in love with her cousin. He put her down
in his own mind as one of those weak, good women, who can bring
themselves easily to love any man, and who are sure to make useful
wives, because they understand so thoroughly the nature of obedience.
If he could secure for her her fortune, and could divide her from
John Ball, he had but little doubt that she would come to him,
in spite of the manner in which she had refused to receive him
in Arundel Street. Having considered all this, after the mode of
thinking which I have attempted to describe, he went to work with
such weapons as were readiest to his hands.

As a first step, he wrote boldly to John Ball. In this letter
he reasserted the statement he had made to Lady Ball as to Miss
Mackenzie's engagement to himself, and added some circumstances
which he had not mentioned to Lady Ball. He said, that having become
engaged to that lady, he had, in consequence, given up his curacy
at Littlebath, and otherwise so disarranged his circumstances, as
to make it imperative upon him to take the steps which he was now
taking. He had come up to London, expecting to find her anxious
to receive him in Gower Street, and had then discovered that she
had been taken away to the Cedars. He could not, he said, give any
adequate description of his surprise, when, on arriving there, he
heard from the mouth of his own Margaret that she was now engaged to
her cousin. But if his surprise then had been great and terrible, how
much greater and more terrible must it have been when, step by step,
the story of that claim upon her fortune revealed itself to him! He
pledged himself, in his letter, as a gentleman and as a Christian
minister, to see the matter out. He would not allow Miss Mackenzie
to be despoiled of her fortune and her hand,--both of which he had
a right to regard as his own,--without making known to the public a
transaction which he regarded as nefarious. Then there was a good
deal of eloquent indignation the nature and purport of which the
reader will probably understand.

Mr Ball did not at all like this letter. He had that strong feeling
of disinclination to be brought before the public with reference
to his private affairs, which is common