Cecilia, I think he is struck with me. When I walked
about the room, his bright eyes followed me everywhere. And, when I took
a chair by somebody else, not feeling it quite right to keep him all to
myself, he invariably contrived to find a seat on the other side of me.
His voice, too, had a certain tone, addressed to me, and to no other
person in the room. Judge for yourself when you come here; but don't
jump to conclusions, if you please. Oh no--I am not going to fall in
love with him! It isn't in me to fall in love with anybody. Do you
remember what the last man whom I refused said of me? "She has a machine
on the left side of her that pumps blood through her body, but she has
no heart." I pity the woman who marries _that_ man!

One thing more, my dear. This curious Amelius seems to notice trifles
which escape men in general, just as _we_ do. Towards the close of the
evening, poor Mamma Farnaby fell into one of her vacant states; half
asleep and half awake on the sofa in the back drawing-room. "Your aunt
interests me," he whispered. "She must have suffered some terrible
sorrow, at some past time in her life." Fancy a man seeing that! He
dropped some hints, which showed that he was puzzling his brains to
discover how I got on with her, and whether I was in her confidence or
not: he even went the length of asking what sort of life I led with the
uncle and aunt who have adopted me. My dear, it was done so delicately,
with such irresistible sympathy and such a charming air of respect,
that I was quite startled when I remembered, in the wakeful hours of
the night, how freely I had spoken to him. Not that I have betrayed any
secrets; for, as you know, I am as ignorant as everybody else of what
the early troubles of my poor dear aunt may have been. But I did tell
him how I came into the house a helpless little orphan girl; and how
generously these two good relatives adopted me; and how happy it made
me to find that I could really do something to cheer their sad childless
lives. "I wish I was half as good as you are," he said. "I can't
understand how you became fond of Mrs. Farnaby. Perhaps it began in
sympathy and compassion?" Just think of that, from a young Englishman!
He went on confessing his perplexities, as if we had known one another
from childhood. "I am a little surprised to see Mrs. Farnaby present at
parties of this sort; I should have thought she would have stayed in her
own room." "That's just what she objects to