much shyness, of her incongruous, destined mate
though his admiration had an edge cutting like irony. While in the turn
for candour, she ought to have told him, that previous to her decision
she had weighed the case of the diverse claims of himself and Tinman,
and resolved them according to her predilection for the peaceful
residence of her father and herself in England. This she had done a
little regretfully, because of the natural sympathy of the young
girl for the younger man. But the younger man had seemed to her
seriously-straightforward mind too light and airy in his wooing, like
one of her waltzing officers--very well so long as she stepped the
measure with him, and not forcible enough to take her off her feet. He
had changed, and now that he had become persuasive, she feared he would
disturb the serenity with which she desired and strove to contemplate
her decision. Tinman's magnanimity was present in her imagination to
sustain her, though she was aware that Mrs. Cavely had surprised her
will, and caused it to surrender unconsulted by her wiser intelligence.

"I cannot listen to you," she said to Herbert, after listening longer
than was prudent. "If what you say of papa is true, I do not think he
will remain in Crikswich, or even in England. But I am sure the old
friend we used, to speak of so much in Australia has not wilfully
betrayed him."

Herbert would have had to say, "Look on us two!" to proceed in his
baffled wooing; and the very ludicrousness of the contrast led him to
see the folly and shame of proposing it.

Van Diemen came down to breakfast looking haggard and restless. "I
have 'nt had my morning's walk--I can't go out to be hooted," he said,
calling to his daughter for tea, and strong tea; and explaining to
Herbert that he knew it to be bad for the nerves, but it was an antidote
to bad champagne.

Mr. Herbert Fellingham had previously received an invitation on behalf
of a sister of his to Crikswich. A dull sense of genuine sagacity
inspired him to remind Annette of it. She wrote prettily to Miss Mary
Fellingham, and Herbert had some faint joy in carrying away the letter
of her handwriting.

"Fetch her soon, for we sha'n't be here long," Van Diemen said to him
at parting. He expressed a certain dread of his next meeting with Mart
Tinman.

Herbert speedily brought Mary Fellingham to Elba, and left her there.
The situation was apparently unaltered. Van Diemen looked worn, like a
man who has bee