hiltern told you in his letter."

"But I believe that is all over."

Then her anger flashed up very high. "And if you do believe it, what
a mean man you must be to come to me when you must know how miserable
I am, and to think that I should be driven to accept you after losing
him! You never could have been anything to me. If you wanted to get
married at all, you should have done it before I was born." This
was hard upon the man, as at that time he could not have been much
more than twenty. "But you don't know anything of the difference in
people if you think that any girl would look at you, after having
been--loved by Mr. Maule. Now, as you do not seem inclined to go
away, I shall leave you." So saying, she walked off with stately
step, out of the room, leaving the door open behind her to facilitate
her escape.

She had certainly been very rude to him, and had treated him very
badly. Of that he was sure. He had conferred upon her what is
commonly called the highest compliment which a gentleman can pay to
a lady, and she had insulted him;--had doubly insulted him. She had
referred to his age, greatly exaggerating his misfortune in that
respect; and she had compared him to that poor beggar Maule in
language most offensive. When she left him, he put his hand beneath
his waistcoat, and turned with an air almost majestic towards the
window. But in an instant he remembered that there was nobody there
to see how he bore his punishment, and he sank down into human
nature. "Damnation!" he said, as he put his hands into his trousers
pockets.

Slowly he made his way down into the hall, and slowly he opened for
himself the front door, and escaped from the house on to the gravel
drive. There he found his cousin Ned still seated in the phaeton, and
slowly driving round the circle in front of the hall door. The squire
succeeded in gaining such command over his own gait and countenance
that his cousin divined nothing of the truth as he clambered up into
his seat. But he soon showed his temper. "What the devil have you got
the reins in this way for?"

"The reins are all right," said Ned.

"No they ain't;--they're all wrong." And then he drove down the
avenue to Spoon Hall as quickly as he could make the horses trot.

"Did you see her?" said Ned, as soon as they were beyond the gates.

"See your grandmother."

"Do you mean to say that I'm not to ask?"

"There's nothing I hate so much as a fellow that's always asking
questi