t the thing has occurred before now, and will occur again, in my
case, if I am thrown over."

"What on earth is there about the girl?" asked Lady Albury. "There
is that precious brother-in-law of ours going to hang himself
incontinently because she will not look at him. And that unfortunate
friend of yours, Tom Tringle, is, if possible, worse than Ben Batsby
or yourself."

"If two other gentlemen are in the same condition it only makes it
the less singular that I should be the third. At any rate, I am the
third."

"You do not mean to liken yourself to them?"

"Indeed I do. As to our connection with Miss Dormer, I can see no
difference. We are all in love with her, and she has refused us
all. It matters little whether a man's ugliness or his rings or his
natural stupidity may have brought about this result."

"You are very modest, Jonathan."

"I always was, only you never could see it. I am modest in this
matter; but not for that reason the less persistent in doing the
best I can for myself. My object now in seeing you is to let you
understand that it is--well, not life and death, because she will
not suffice either to kill me or to keep me alive,--but one of those
matters which, in a man's career, are almost as important to him as
life and death. She was very decided in her refusal."

"So is every girl when a first offer is made to her. How is any girl
so to arrange her thoughts at a moment's notice as to accept a man
off-hand?"

"Girls do do so."

"Very rarely, I think; and when they do they are hardly worth
having," said Lady Albury, laying down the law on the matter with
great precision. "If a girl accept a man all at once when she has
had, as it were, no preparation for such a proposal, she must always
surely be in a state of great readiness for matrimonial projects.
When there has been a prolonged period of spooning then of course it
is quite a different thing. The whole thing has in fact been arranged
before the important word has been spoken."

"What a professor in the art you are!" said he.

"The odd thing is, that such a one as you should be so ignorant.
Can't you understand that she would not come to Stalham if her mind
were made up against you? I said nothing of you as a lover, but I
took care to let her know that you were coming. You are very ready
to put yourself in the same boat with poor Ben Batsby or that other
unfortunate wretch. Would she, do you think, have consented to come
had she kn