-he did not, indeed, care how long
it might be. He had recovered now from that paleness, and that want
of gloves and jewellery which had befallen him on the previous day
immediately after the sight he had seen in the City. Clara made no
answer to the last speech, but, putting some things together in her
work-basket, prepared to leave the room. "I hope you are not going to
leave me?" he said, in a voice that was intended to convey much of
love, and something of melancholy.

"I am so shocked by what has happened, Mr. Musselboro, that I am
altogether unfit for conversation. I was with poor Mrs. Broughton last
night, and I shall return to her when mamma comes home."

"It is sad, certainly; but what was there to be expected? If you'd
only seen how he used to go on." To this Clara made no answer. "Don't
go yet," said he; "there is something that I want to say to you.
There is, indeed."

Clara Van Siever was a young person whose presence of mind rarely
deserted her. It occurred to her now that she must undergo on some
occasion the nuisance of a direct offer from this man, and that she
could have no better opportunity of answering him after her own
fashion than the present. Her mother was absent, and the field was
her own. And, moreover, it was a point in her favour that the tragedy
which had so lately occurred, and to which she had just now alluded,
would give her a fair excuse for additional severity. At such a
moment no man could, she told herself, be justified in making an
offer of his love, and therefore she might rebuke him with the less
remorse. I wonder whether the last words which Conway Dalrymple had
spoken to her stung her conscience as she thought of this! She had
now reached the door, and was standing close to it. As Mr. Musselboro
did not at once begin, she encouraged him. "If you have anything
special to tell me, of course I will hear you," she said.

"Miss Clara," he began, rising from his chair, and coming into the
middle of the room. "I think you know what my wishes are." Then he
put his hand upon his heart. "And your respected mother is the same
way of thinking. It's that that emboldens me to be so sudden. Not but
what my heart has been yours and yours only all along, before the old
lady so much as mentioned it." Clara would give him no assistance,
not even the aid of a negative, but stood there quite passive, with
her hand on the door. "Since I first had the pleasure of seeing you I
have always said to