alked out
of my intentions in such a matter as this. I have set my
heart upon having you and nothing will ever turn me off.

Dearest Ayala, let me have one look to say that you will
love me, and I shall be the happiest man in England. I
think you so beautiful! I do, indeed. The governor has
always said that if I would settle down and marry there
should be lots of money. What could I do better with it
than make my darling look as grand as the best of them.

Yours, always meaning it,
Most affectionately,

T. TRINGLE.

It almost touched her,--not in the way of love but of gratitude. He
was still to her like Bottom with the ass's head, or the Newfoundland
dog gambolling out of the water. There was the heavy face, and there
were the big chains and the odious rings, and the great hands and
the clumsy feet,--making together a creature whom it was impossible
even to think of with love. She shuddered as she remembered the
proposition which had been made to her in the Coliseum.

And now by writing to him she had brought down upon herself this
absolute love-letter. She had thought that by appealing to him as
"Dear Tom," and by signing herself his affectionate cousin, she might
have prevailed. If he could only be made to understand that it could
never mean anything! But now, on the other hand, she had begun to
understand that it did _mean_ a great deal. He had sent to her a
regular offer of marriage! The magnitude of the thing struck her at
last. The heir of all the wealth of her mighty uncle wanted to make
her his wife!

But it was to her exactly as though the heir had come to her wearing
an ass's head on his shoulders. Love him! Marry him!--or even touch
him? Oh, no. They might ill-use her; they might scold her; they might
turn her out of the house; but no consideration would induce her to
think of Tom Tringle as a lover.

And yet he was in earnest, and honest, and good. And some
answer,--some further communication must be made to him. She
did recognise some nobility in him, though personally he was so
distasteful to her. Now his appeal to her had taken the guise of an
absolute offer of marriage he was entitled to a discreet and civil
answer. Romantic, dreamy, poetic, childish as she was, she knew as
much as that. "Go away, Tom, you fool, you," would no longer do for
the occasion. As she thought of it all that night it was borne in
upon her more strongly than ever that her only protec