enough to be a match some day; but Penny was a child at present. And all
the while Penny was imagining the circumstances under which Mr. Freely
would make her an offer: perhaps down by the row of damson-trees, when
they were in the garden before tea; perhaps by letter--in which case, how
would the letter begin? "Dearest Penelope?" or "My dear Miss Penelope?"
or straight off, without dear anything, as seemed the most natural when
people were embarrassed? But, however he might make the offer, she would
not accept it without her father's consent: she would always be true to
Mr. Freely, but she would not disobey her father. For Penny was a good
girl, though some of her female friends were afterwards of opinion that
it spoke ill for her not to have felt an instinctive repugnance to Mr.
Freely.

But he was cautious, and wished to be quite sure of the ground he trod
on. His views on marriage were not entirely sentimental, but were as
duly mingled with considerations of what would be advantageous to a man
in his position, as if he had had a very large amount of money spent on
his education. He was not a man to fall in love in the wrong place; and
so, he applied himself quite as much to conciliate the favour of the
parents, as to secure the attachment of Penny. Mrs. Palfrey had not been
inaccessible to flattery, and her husband, being also of mortal mould,
would not, it might be hoped, be proof against rum--that very fine
Jamaica rum--of which Mr. Freely expected always to have a supply sent
him from Jamaica. It was not easy to get Mr. Palfrey into the parlour
behind the shop, where a mild back-street light fell on the features of
the heroic admiral; but by getting hold of him rather late one evening as
he was about to return home from Grimworth, the aspiring lover succeeded
in persuading him to sup on some collared beef which, after Mrs.
Palfrey's brawn, he would find the very best of cold eating.

From that hour Mr. Freely felt sure of success: being in privacy with an
estimable man old enough to be his father, and being rather lonely in the
world, it was natural he should unbosom himself a little on subjects
which he could not speak of in a mixed circle--especially concerning his
expectations from his uncle in Jamaica, who had no children, and loved
his nephew Edward better than any one else in the world, though he had
been so hurt at his leaving Jamaica, that he had threatened to cut him
off with a shilling. However