nlike any
other girl he had ever seen! How full she was of energy, how
courageous, and, then, how beautiful! No doubt her special treatment
of him was sheer flattery. He told himself that it was so. But, after
all, flattery is agreeable. That she did like him better than anybody
else was probable. He could have no feeling of the injustice he
might do to the heart of a woman who at the very moment that she was
expressing her partiality for him, was also expressing her anger that
another man would not consent to marry her. And then women who have
had one husband already are not like young girls in respect to their
hearts. So at least thought Frank Greystock. Then he remembered the
time at which he had intended to ask Lizzie to be his wife,--the very
day on which he would have done so had he been able to get away from
that early division at the House,--and he asked himself whether he
felt any regret on that score. It would have been very nice to come
down to Portray Castle as to his own mansion after the work of the
courts and of the session. Had Lizzie become his wife, her fortune
would have helped him to the very highest steps beneath the throne.
At present he was almost nobody;--because he was so poor, and in
debt. It was so, undoubtedly; but what did all that matter in
comparison with the love of Lucy Morris? A man is bound to be true.
And he would be true. Only, as a matter of course, Lucy must wait.

When he had first kissed his cousin up in London, she suggested that
the kiss was given as by a brother, and asserted that it was accepted
as by a sister. He had not demurred, having been allowed the kiss.
Nothing of the kind had been said under the rocks to-day;--but then
that fraternal arrangement, when once made and accepted, remains,
no doubt, in force for a long time. He did like his cousin Lizzie.
He liked to feel that he could be her friend, with the power of
domineering over her. She, also, was fond of her own way, and loved
to domineer herself; but the moment that he suggested to her that
there might be a quarrel, she was reduced to a prayer that he
would not desert her. Such a friendship has charms for a young man,
especially if the lady be pretty. As to Lizzie's prettiness, no man
or woman could entertain a doubt. And she had a way of making the
most of herself, which it was very hard to resist. Some young women,
when they clamber over rocks, are awkward, heavy, unattractive, and
troublesome. But Lizzie had a