ed round.

"I can't talk to you here. Won't you walk back by the other road behind
the town?" he said.

Yes, she would go willingly with him now. The anxiety of his face, the
almost wild way in which he seemed to beg for her help and friendship,
the mere impatience of his manner, pleased and satisfied her. This was
as it should be. Here was no sweetheart by line and rule, demonstrating
his affection by argument, and acting at all times with a studied
propriety; but a real, true lover, full of passionate hope and as
passionate fear; ready to do anything, and yet not knowing what to do.
Above all, he was "brave and handsome, like a prince," and therefore a
fit lover for her gentle sister.

"Oh, Mr. Trelyon," she said with a great burst of confidence, "I did so
fear that you might be indifferent!"

"Indifferent!" said he with some bitterness. "Perhaps that is the best
thing that could happen, only it isn't very likely to happen. Did you
ever see anybody placed as I am placed, Mabyn? Nothing but
stumbling-blocks every way I look. Our family have always been
hot-headed and hot-tempered: if I told my grandmother at this minute how
I am situated, I believe she would say, 'Why don't you go like a man and
run off with the girl?'"

"Yes!" said Mabyn, quite delighted.

"But suppose you've bothered and worried the girl until you feel ashamed
of yourself, and she begs of you to leave her, aren't you bound in fair
manliness to go?"

"I don't know," said Mabyn doubtfully.

"Well, I do. It would be very mean to pester her. I'm off as soon as
these people leave the Hall. But then there are other things. There is
your sister engaged to this fellow out in Jamaica--"

"Isn't he a horrid wretch?" said Mabyn between her teeth.

"Oh, I quite agree with you. If I could have it out with him now! But,
after all, what harm has the man done? Is it any wonder he wanted to get
Wenna for a wife?"

"Oh, but he cheated her," said Mabyn warmly. "He persuaded her and
reasoned with her, and argued her into marrying him. And what business
had he to tell her that love between young people is all bitterness and
trial, and that a girl is only safe when she marries a prudent and
elderly man who will look after her? Why, it is to look after him that
he wants her. Wenna is going to him as a housekeeper and a nurse.
Only--only, Mr. Trelyon, _she hasn't gone to him just yet_!"

"Oh, I don't think he did anything unfair," the young man said gloomily.