member it has been somewhat of a trial to me also.
I grant that I have had plenty of occupation which has been in every way
beneficial to me, and have not at all lamented leaving the country, but
in one respect it has been a trial. I don't know whether it ever entered
your mind, before that sad time at home, that I was getting to care for
you in a very different way to that in which I had done before.

"My father, I think, observed it, for he threw out a very plain hint
once that he would very gladly see us coming together. However, I never
spoke of it to you. I was young and you were young. It seemed to me that
there was plenty of time, and that, moreover, it would not be fair for
me to speak to you until you had had the opportunity of going out and of
seeing other men. Then came the evening before his death, when my father
told me how matters really stood, and he again said that there was a way
by which all trouble could be obviated. But I saw that it was not so,
and that the hope I had entertained must be put aside. I had never told
you I loved you when I seemed to be the heir of the property and you
only the daughter of an old comrade of his, and I saw that were I to
speak now, when you were the heiress, it could not but appear to you
that it was the estate and not you that I wanted, and I felt my lips
were sealed forever. Mr. Prendergast said that day when he came down to
the funeral, and you told him that you would not take the property, that
it might be managed in another way, and you said that you did not want
to be married for your money; so you see you saw it in exactly the same
light as I did.

"My first thought this morning, when Mr. Cotter told me that the money
had mounted up to over 100,000 pounds, was that it would unseal my
lips. You were still better off than I was, but the difference was now
immaterial. I was a rich man, and had not the smallest occasion to marry
for money. Whether I married a girl without a penny, or an heiress,
could make but little difference to me, as I have certainly no ambition
to become a great landowner. I still think that it would have been more
fair to you to give you the opportunity of seeing more of the society of
the world before speaking to you, but you see you are opposed to that,
and therefore it would be the same did I wait patiently another year,
which I don't think I should be able to do. I love you, Millicent. It
is only during the past eighteen months, when I have