igning
persons."

"Of course I was justified," said Lizzie.

"You know best, Lady Eustace, whether any assistance I can offer will
avail you anything."

"I don't want any assistance, Mr. Emilius,--thank you."

"I certainly have been given to understand that they who ought to
stand by you with the closest devotion have, in this period of what
I may, perhaps, call--tribulation, deserted your side with cold
selfishness."

"But there isn't any tribulation, and nobody has deserted my side."

"I was told that Lord Fawn--"

"Lord Fawn is an idiot."

"Quite so;--no doubt."

"And I have deserted him. I wrote to him this very morning, in answer
to a pressing letter from him to renew our engagement, to tell him
that that was out of the question. I despise Lord Fawn, and my heart
never can be given where my respect does not accompany it."

"A noble sentiment, Lady Eustace, which I reciprocate completely. And
now, to come to what I may call the inner purport of my visit to you
this morning, the sweet cause of my attendance on you, let me assure
you that I should not now offer you my heart, unless with my heart
went the most perfect respect and esteem which any man ever felt for
a woman." Mr. Emilius had found the necessity of coming to the point
by some direct road, as the lady had refused to allow him to lead up
to it in the manner he had proposed to himself. He still thought that
what he had said might be efficacious, as he did not for a moment
believe her assertions as to her own friends, and the non-existence
of any trouble as to the oaths which she had falsely sworn. But she
carried the matter with a better courage than he had expected to
find, and drove him out of his intended line of approach. He had,
however, seized his opportunity without losing much time.

"What on earth do you mean, Mr. Emilius?" she said.

"I mean to lay my heart, my hand, my fortunes, my profession, my
career at your feet. I make bold to say of myself that I have, by
my own unaided eloquence and intelligence, won for myself a great
position in this swarming metropolis. Lady Eustace, I know your great
rank. I feel your transcendent beauty,--ah, too acutely. I have been
told that you are rich. But I, myself, who venture to approach you
as a suitor for your hand, am also somebody in the world. The blood
that runs in my veins is as illustrious as your own, having descended
to me from the great and ancient nobles of my native country. The
pr