ch
different hues, that it would be a sore infliction on your patience were
I only to open the budget; and as to either of us exhausting it, it is
totally out of the question. Take your chance of a subject, then, and I
'll do my best to enlighten you."

"This is fencing, sir; and it doesn't suit me?"

"If you knew how very little the whole conversation suits me, you 'd not
undervalue my patience."

"I ask you once again, what are your intentions as regards my youngest
daughter, Miss Rebecca Graham! That's plain speaking, I believe."

"Nothing plainer; and my reply shall be equally so. I have none,--none
whatever."

"Do you mean to say you never paid her any particular attentions?"

"Never."

"That you never took long walks with her when at Lyle Abbey, quite alone
and unaccompanied?"

"We walked together repeatedly. I am not so ungrateful as to forget her
charming companionship."

"Confound your gratitude, sir! it's not that I'm talking of. You
made advances. You--you told her--you said--in fact, you made her
believe--ay, and you made me believe--that you meant to ask her to marry
you."

"Impossible!" said Maitland; "impossible!"

"And why impossible? Is it that our respective conditions are such as to
make the matter impossible?"

"I never thought of such an impertinence, Commodore. When I said
impossible, it was entirely with respect to the construction that could
be placed on all my intercourse with Miss Graham."

"And did n't I go up to your room on the morning I left, and ask you to
come over to Port-Graham and talk the matter over with me?"

"You invited me to your house, but I had not the faintest notion that
it was to this end. Don't shake your head as if you doubted me; I pledge
you my word on it."

"How often have you done this sort of thing? for no fellow is as cool as
you are that's not an old hand at it."

"I can forgive a good deal--"

"Forgive! I should think you could forgive the people you've injured.
The question is, can I forgive? Yes, sir, can I forgive?"

"I declare it never occurred to me to inquire."

"That's enough,--quite enough; you shall hear from me. It may take
me twenty-four hours to find a friend; but before this time to-morrow
evening, sir, I 'll have him."

Maitland shrugged his shoulders carelessly, and said, "As you please,
sir."

"It shall be as I please, sir; I 'll take care of that. Are you able to
say at present to whom my friend can address himself?"