now no longer half archly, "you must
pardon me for believing your proposal can be nothing but a jest; but
here, I beseech you, let it rest forever. Do not mention this subject to
me again."

"By heavens!" cried Mauleverer, "this is too cruel. Brandon, intercede
with me for your niece."

Sir William started, naturally enough, from his slumber, and Mauleverer
continued,

"Yes, intercede for me; you, my oldest friend, be my greatest
benefactor! I sue to your niece; she affects to disbelieve. Will you
convince her of my truth, my devotion, my worship?"

"Disbelieve you!" said the bland judge, with the same secret sneer that
usually lurked in the corners of his mouth. "I do not wonder that she is
slow to credit the honour you have done her, and for which the noblest
damsels in England have sighed in vain. Lucy, will you be cruel to Lord
Mauleverer? Believe me, he has often confided to me his love for you;
and if the experience of some years avails, there is not a question of
his honour and his truth. I leave his fate in your hands."

Brandon turned to the door.

"Stay, dear sir," said Lucy, "and instead of interceding for Lord
Mauleverer, intercede for me." Her look now settled into a calm and
decided seriousness of expression. "I feel highly flattered by his
lordship's proposal, which, as you say, I might well doubt to be gravely
meant. I wish him all happiness with a lady of higher deserts; but I
speak from an unalterable determination, when I say that I can never
accept the dignity with which he would invest me."

So saying, Lucy walked quickly to the door and vanished, leaving the two
friends to comment as they would upon her conduct.

"You have spoiled all with your precipitation," said the uncle.

"Precipitation! d---n it, what would you have? I have been fifty years
making up my mind to marry; and now when I have not a day to lose, you
talk of precipitation!" answered the lover, throwing himself into an
easy-chair.

"But you have not been fifty years making up your mind to marry my
niece," said Brandon, dryly.

"To be refused, positively refused, by a country girl!" continued
Mauleverer, soliloquizing aloud; "and that too at my age and with all
my experience!--a country girl without rank, ton, accomplishments! By
heavens! I don't care if all the world heard it,--for not a soul in the
world will ever believe it."

Brandon sat speechless, eying the mortified face of the courtier with
a malicious complac