doings?"

"Perhaps you would like me to tell him your opinion of his intellect and
great plans," I answered. "And after all his kindness to you!"

"You never will do that," he said; "because you are a lady, and will not
repeat what is said in confidence. I could help you materially in your
great object, if you would only make a friend of me."

"And what would your own object be? The pure anxiety to do right?"

"Partly, and I might say mainly, that; also an ambition for your good
opinion, which seems so inaccessible. But you will think me selfish if I
even hint at any condition of any kind. Every body I have ever met with
likes me, except Miss Castlewood."

As he spoke he glanced down his fine amber-colored beard, shining in the
sun, and even in the sun showing no gray hair (for a reason which Mrs.
Hockin told me afterward), and he seemed to think it hard that a man
with such a beard should be valued lightly.

"I do not see why we should talk," I said, "about either likes or
dislikes. Only, if you have any thing to tell, I shall be very much
obliged to you."

This gentleman looked at me in a way which I have often observed in
England. A general idea there prevails that the free and enlightened
natives of the West are in front of those here in intelligence, and
to some extent, therefore, in dishonesty. But there must be many cases
where the two are not the same.

"No," I replied, while he was looking at his buttons, which had every
British animal upon them; "I mean nothing more than the simple thing
I say. If you ought to tell me any thing, tell it. I am accustomed to
straightforward people. But they disappoint one by their never knowing
any thing."

"But I know something," he answered, with a nod of grave, mysterious
import; "and perhaps I will tell you some day, when admitted, if ever I
have such an honor, to some little degree of friendship."

"Oh, please not to think of yourself," I exclaimed, in a manner which
must have amused him. "In such a case, the last thing that you should do
is that. Think only of what is right and honorable, and your duty toward
a lady. Also your duty to the laws of your country. I am not at all sure
that you ought not to be arrested. But perhaps it is nothing at all,
after all; only something invented to provoke me."

"In that case, I can only drop the subject," he answered, with that
stern gleam of the eyes which I had observed before, and detested. "I
was also to tell you that