subject, but Camilla had declared in more than
one house that she had most direct authority for stating that the
gentleman had never dreamed of offering to the young lady. "Why he
should not do so if he pleases, I don't know," said Camilla. "Only
the fact is that he has not pleased. The rumour of course has reached
him, and, as we happen to be very old friends, we have authority for
denying it altogether." All this came round to Miss Stanbury, and she
was divine in her wrath.

"If they drive me to it," she said to Dorothy, "I'll have the whole
truth told by the bellman through the city, or I'll publish it in the
County Gazette."

"Pray don't say a word about it, Aunt Stanbury."

"It is those odious girls. He's there now every day."

"Why shouldn't he go there, Aunt Stanbury?"

"If he's fool enough, let him go. I don't care where he goes. But
I do care about these lies. They wouldn't dare to say it only they
think my mouth is closed. They've no honour themselves, but they
screen themselves behind mine."

"I'm sure they won't find themselves mistaken in what they trust to,"
said Dorothy, with a spirit that her aunt had not expected from her.
Miss Stanbury at this time had told nobody that the offer to her
niece had been made and repeated and finally rejected;--but she found
it very difficult to hold her tongue.

In the meantime Mr. Gibson spent a good deal of his time at
Heavitree. It should not perhaps be asserted broadly that he had made
up his mind that marriage would be good for him; but he had made up
his mind, at least, to this, that it was no longer to be postponed
without a balance of disadvantage. The Charybdis in the Close drove
him helpless into the whirlpool of the Heavitree Scylla. He had no
longer an escape from the perils of the latter shore. He had been so
mauled by the opposite waves, that he had neither spirit nor skill
left to him to keep in the middle track. He was almost daily at
Heavitree, and did not attempt to conceal from himself the approach
of his doom.

But still there were two of them. He knew that he must become a prey,
but was there any choice left to him as to which siren should have
him? He had been quite aware in his more gallant days, before he had
been knocked about on that Charybdis rock, that he might sip, and
taste, and choose between the sweets. He had come to think lately
that the younger young lady was the sweeter. Eight years ago indeed
the passages between him and th