hinted at a reason that seemed unanswerable, and
suggested that, though they might aid each other as friends, there could
be no copartnership of interests. "What has led her to this change of
mind, Heaven knows. It is no lucky turn of fortune on my side can have
induced it; my prospects were never bleaker. And then," thought he, "of
what nature is this same secret, or rather these secrets, of hers,
for they seem to grow in clusters? What can she have done? or what has
Penthony Morris done? Is he alive? Is he at Norfolk Island? Was he a
forger, or worse? How much does Paten know about her? What power has
he over her besides the possession of these letters? Is Paten Penthony
Morris?" It was thus that his mind went to and fro, like a surging sea,
restless and not advancing. Never was there a man more tortured by his
conjectures. He knew that she might marry Sir William Heathcote if she
liked; why, then, prefer himself to a man of station and fortune? Was
it that he was more likely to enact the vengeance she thirsted for than
the old Baronet? Ay, that was a reasonable calculation. She was right
there, and he 'd bring Master Paten "to book," as sure as his name was
O'Shea. That was the sort of thing he understood as well as any man in
Europe. He had been out scores of times, and knew how to pick a quarrel,
and to aggravate it, and make it perfectly beyond all possibility of
arrangement, as well as any fire-eater of a French line regiment. That
was, perhaps, the reason of the widow's choice of him. If she
married Heathcote, it would be a case for lawyers: a great trial at
Westminster, and a great scandal in the papers. "But with me it will be
all quiet and peaceable. I 'll get back her letters, or I 'll know why."

He next bethought him of her fortune. He wished she had told him more
about it,--how it came to her,--was it by settlement,--was it from the
Morrises? He wished, too, it had not been in America; he was not quite
sure that property there meant anything at all; and, lastly, he brought
to mind that though he had proposed for dozens of women, this was the
only occasion he was not asked what he could secure by settlement, and
how much he would give as pin-money. No, on that score she was delicacy
itself, and he was one to appreciate all the refinement of her reserve.
Indeed, if it came to the old business of searches, and showing titles,
and all the other exposures of the O'Shea family, he felt that he would
rather die