Eustace cheerfully.

Madeline did not contradict him; she did not see her way to doing so
just at present.

Then came a pause.

"Madeline," said Sir Eustace presently, in a changed voice, "I have
something to say to you."

"Indeed, Sir Eustace," she answered, lifting her eyebrows again in her
note of interrogation manner, "what is it?"

"It is this, Madeline--I want to ask you to be my wife."

The blue velvet curtains suddenly gave a jump as though they were
assisting at at spiritualistic _seance_.

Sir Eustace looked at the curtains with warning in his eye.

Madeline saw nothing.

"Really, Sir Eustace!"

"I dare say I surprise you," went on this ardent lover; "my suit may
seem a sudden one, but in truth it is nothing of the sort."

"O Lord, what a lie!" groaned the distracted Bottles.

"I thought, Sir Eustace," murmured Madeline in her sweet low voice,
"that you told me not very long ago that you never meant to marry."

"Nor did I, Madeline, because I thought there was no chance of my
marrying you" ("which I am sure I hope there isn't," he added to
himself). "But--but, Madeline, I love you." ("Heaven forgive me for
that!") "Listen to me, Madeline, before you answer," and he drew his
chair closer to her own. "I feel the loneliness of my position, and I
want to get married. I think that we should suit each other very well.
At our age, now that our youth is past" (he could not resist this dig,
at which Madeline winced), "probably neither of us would wish to marry
anybody much our junior. I have had many opportunities lately, Madeline,
of seeing the beauty of your character, and to the beauties of your
person no man could be blind. I can offer you a good position, a good
fortune, and myself, such as I am. Will you take me?" and he laid his
hand upon hers and gazed earnestly into her eyes.

"Really, Sir Eustace," she murmured, "this is so very unexpected and
sudden."

"Yes, Madeline, I know it is. I have no right to take you by storm
in this way, but I trust you will not allow my precipitancy to weight
against me. Take a little time to think it over--a week say" ("by which
time," he reflected, "I hope to be in Algiers.") "Only, if you can,
Madeline, tell me that I may hope."

She made no immediate answer, but, letting her hands fall idly in her
lap, looked straight before her, her beautiful eyes fixed upon vacancy,
and her mind amply occupied in considering the pros and cons of the
situation. Then Sir E