er.

"Whatever did you come and ask me such a question for?" I inquired,
rather pettishly.

"Was there any harm in it?" he rejoined.

"Yes, there was harm in it," I answered; "it has made me very
uncomfortable. I thought you were going out of your mind. If you meant
nothing but to make me say I liked you, you should have expressed
yourself differently. Of course, I love you all, and all alike."

"Very good," he said again.

I felt so angry that I was about to get up, and go away to my own room;
but he caught my dress, and implored me to stay a little longer.

"I'll make a clean breast of it," he said; "I promised that dear old
dolt Martin to come straight to you, and ask you if you loved me, in so
many words. Well, I've kept my promise; and now I'll go and tell him you
say you love us all, and all alike."

"No," I answered, "you shall not go and tell him that. What could put it
into Dr. Martin's head that I was in love with you?"

"Why shouldn't you be in love with me?" retorted Dr. John; "Martin
assures me that I am much handsomer than he is--a more eligible _parti_
in every respect. I suppose I shall have an income, apart from our
practice, at least ten times larger than his. I am much more sought
after generally; one cannot help seeing that. Why should you not be in
love with me?"

I did not deign to reply to him, and Jack leaned forward a little to
look into my face.

"Olivia," he continued, "that is part of what Martin says. We have just
been speaking of you as we came down to Fulham--never before. He
maintains he is bound in honor to leave you as free as possible to make
your choice, not merely between us, but from the number of fellows who
have found their way down here, since you came. You made one fatal
mistake, he says, through your complete ignorance of the world; and it
is his duty to take care that you do not make a second mistake, through
any gratitude you might feel toward him. He would not be satisfied with
gratitude. Besides, he has discovered that he is not so great a prize as
he fancied, as long as he lived in Guernsey; and you are a richer prize
than you seemed to be then. With your fortune you ought to make a much
better match than with a young physician, who has to push his way among
a host of competitors. Lastly, Martin said, for I'm merely repeating his
own arguments to you: 'Do you think I can put her happiness and mine
into a balance, and coolly calculate which has the greater weigh