l in the Hermit of the Folly, and he thought the latter
had sufficient charms to console even Orlando for the loss of Angelica.
In short, Miss Gryll had first made him think of marriage, and whenever
he thought his hopes were dim in that quarter, he found an antidote to
despair in the contemplation of the statue-like damsel.

Mr. Falconer took more and more pleasure in Miss Gryll's society, but he
did not declare himself. He was more than once on the point of doing so,
but the images of the Seven Sisters rose before him, and he suspended
the intention. On these occasions he always went home for a day or two
to fortify his resolution against his heart. Thus he passed his time
between the Grange and the Tower, 'letting I dare not wait upon I
would.'

Miss Gryll had listened to _Lord Curryfin._ She had neither encouraged
nor discouraged him. She thought him the most amusing person she had
ever known. She liked his temper, his acquirements, and his manners.
She could not divest herself of that feeling of the ludicrous which
everybody seemed to associate with him; but she thought the chances of
life presented little hope of a happier marriage than a woman who would
fall in with his tastes and pursuits--which, notwithstanding their
tincture of absurdity, were entertaining and even amiable--might hope
for with him. Therefore she would not say No, though, when she thought
of Mr. Falconer, she could not say Yes.

Lord Curryfin invented a new sail of infallible safety, which resulted,
like most similar inventions, in capsizing the inventor on the first
trial. Miss Niphet, going one afternoon, later than usual, to her
accustomed pavilion, found his lordship scrambling up the bank, and his
boat, keel upwards, at some little distance in the lake.

[Illustration: Found his lordship scrambling up the bank 148-119]

For a moment her usual self-command forsook her. She held out both her
hands to assist him up the bank, and as soon as he stood on dry land,
dripping like a Triton in trousers, she exclaimed in such a tone as he
had never before heard, 'Oh! my dear lord!' Then, as if conscious of her
momentary aberration, she blushed with a deeper blush than that of the
artificial rose which he had once thought might improve her complexion.
She attempted to withdraw her hands, but he squeezed them both ardently,
and exclaimed in his turn, like a lover in a tragedy--

'Surely, till now I never looked on beauty.'

She was on the point