can make no difference to me, whether
her choice be M. or N.; it does not in any way alter my position, as a
vermin,--toad, bug, spider, worm--what you please--to be trodden upon
and crushed, were it not for the risk of soiling a dainty shoe----"

"Nonsense--you exaggerate, as you always do--but tell me--"

"Whether I exaggerate or not, nobody can tell except myself;" and he
distorted his ignoble mouth to a grimace of atrocious spite. "Why
should I make any secret of it?--On this very spot, not ten days ago, I
came and made her a formal offer of my hand and heart. Upon which she
just walked out and left me standing, as if I had been an idiot, not
worth answering!--Bah!--I can laugh at it now!--I can't think what
possessed me! I am not such a beggar as to care for her thalers.
If it were not for my own amusement, I could throw over the whole
concern--give up this daubing and scrawling business, and go home to my
own place, where my father and mother are well to do, living
comfortably on their own broad acres.--Only I was such an ass as to be
smitten with this scornful damsel, and I would have been willing to
forget that she is no chicken; (several years older than myself in
fact.) And she--I tell you she looked at me as if a toad had spit its
venom on her. Death and damnation! wouldn't I have given her a piece
of my mind! Only I thought: '_She_ will never marry--she will have
nobody--she must have found a thing or two in her past life, to disgust
her with man and marriage;' and so I choked upon my wrath. But this is
quite another affair. If she hangs out other colors, and capitulates to
another suitor, I see she did not think me good enough--"

He swallowed down the rest of his abuse, and only waved about his
hands, in confused convulsive gesticulation.

"Are you sure of what you are saying?" asked Walter in a low voice,
that was trembling with some strong suppressed emotion. "Who is the
man?--is it a settled thing?--And yet no--it is impossible--only last
night--"

"What do you venture to call impossible, when you are speaking of a
woman?? Bah! teach _me_ their tricks and dodges!--_I_ saw how late it
was last night, when you left her!--I dare say she would not let you
go, but coddled you to her heart's content, it being the last time. But
I tell you it is as true--as true as that the sun is shining.--She
is going to be married--and her choice is no other that wretched
quilldriver of a lawyer--"

"Hansen?--the Doc