said to him at
Dunripple about Mary Lowther, but very many words were said about his
own condition. Gregory Marrable strongly advised him against going to
India,--so strongly that Walter was surprised to find that such a man
would have so much to say on such a subject. The young captain, in
such circumstances, could not very well explain that he was driven
to follow his profession in a fashion so disagreeable to him because,
although he was heir to Dunripple, he was not near enough to it to be
entitled to any allowance from its owner; but he felt that that would
have been the only true answer when it was proposed to him to stay
in England because he would some day become Sir Walter Marrable. But
he did plead the great loss which he had encountered by means of his
father's ill-treatment of him, and endeavoured to prove to his cousin
that there was no alternative before him but to serve in some quarter
of the globe in which his pay would be sufficient for his wants.

"Why should you not sell out, or go on half-pay, and remain here and
marry Edith Brownlow?" said his cousin.

"I don't think I could do that," said Walter, slowly.

"Why not? There is nothing my father would like so much." Then he
was silent for awhile, but, as his cousin made no further immediate
reply, Gregory Marrable went on with his plan. "Ten years ago, when
she was not much more than a little girl, and when it was first
arranged that she should come here, my father proposed--that I should
marry her."

"And why didn't you?"

The elder cousin smiled and shook his head, and coughed aloud as
he smiled. "Why not, indeed? Well; I suppose you can see why not.
I was an old man almost before she was a young woman. She is just
twenty-four now, and I shall be dead, probably, in two years' time."

"Nonsense."

"Twice since that time I have been within an inch of dying. At any
rate, even my father does not look to that any longer."

"Is he fond of Miss Brownlow?"

"There is no one in the world whom he loves so well. Of course an old
man loves a young woman best. It is natural that he should do so. He
never had a daughter; but Edith is the same to him as his own child.
Nothing would please him so much as that she should be the mistress
of Dunripple."

"I'm afraid that it cannot be so," said Walter.

"But why not? There need be no India for you then. If you would do
that you would be to my father exactly as though you were his son.
Your father might, o