had it at all hotter than she has
deserved; and when you tell me that I have been awfully cruel to the
poor girl, you seem to forget that the poor girl began the war by
being awfully cruel to me. If you and I should ever come to know
each other, you may be sure that I shall never treat any woman well
because she has treated me badly. It's a kind of gallantry I cannot
understand, and must make a man's conduct quite indifferent to
the sex generally. If you're to treat all alike, whether they run
straight or bolt, why shouldn't they all bolt? It would come to
the same thing in the end. There is Dick Ross been making himself
uncommonly disagreeable on the same subject. I don't mind your
lecturing me a little,--chiefly because you don't think it; but I'll
be hanged if I take it from him. He has not done so very well himself
that he is entitled to blow up anyone.

"Mind you write and tell me what happens over at St. David's." (Mrs.
Holt lived in Exeter at St. David's.) "I shall be glad to know
whether that respectable person, Mr. Western, comes back again. I
don't think she'll have a good time if he does, and if he don't I
sha'n't break my heart." Then he put his pen down and sat for a while
thinking what should be his last paragraph. Should he put an end to
all his doubts and straightway make his offer, or should he dally a
little longer and still keep the power in his own hands? At last he
said to himself that even if he wrote it his letter would not go till
to-morrow morning, and he would have the night to think about it.
This consideration got the better of his prudence and he did write
it, simply beginning a new sentence on the page. "Don't you think
that you and I know each other well enough to make a match of it?
There is a question for you to answer on your own behalf, instead of
blowing me up for any cruelty to Cecilia Holt."

Then he signed his name, "Yours ever, F. G."

Miss Altifiorla when she received the letter was surprised, but not
startled. She had expected that it would come, but not so quickly;
and it may be said of her that she had quite made up her mind as to
the final answer to be given if it should come. But still she had to
think much about it before she wrote her reply. It might be very well
for him to be sudden, but any over-suddenness on her part would put
him on his guard. If he should be made to feel alarmed at what he had
done, if he should be once frightened at his own impetuousness and
hers