t once; but as to the main
question, she thought herself bound to answer him plainly, as she
would have answered a man who came to buy from her a house, which
house was no longer in her possession.

Mr Maguire when he received her letter, did not believe a word of it.
He did not in the least believe that she had actually lost everything
that had once belonged to her, or that he, if he married her now,
would obtain less than he would have done had he married her before
her brother's death. But he thought that her brother's family and
friends had got hold of her in London; that Mr Rubb might very
probably have done it; and that they were striving to obtain command
of her money, and were influencing her to desert him. He thinking so,
and being a man of good courage, took a resolution to follow his
game, and to see whether even yet he might not obtain the good things
which had made his eyes glisten and his mouth water. He knew that
there was very much against him in the race that he was desirous of
running, and that an heiress with--he did not know how much a year,
but it had been rumoured among the Stumfoldians that it was over
a thousand--might not again fall in his way. There were very many
things against him, of which he was quite conscious. He had not a
shilling of his own, and was in receipt of no professional income. He
was not altogether a young man. There was in his personal appearance
a defect which many ladies might find it difficult to overcome; and
then that little story about his debts, which Miss Todd had picked
up, was not only true, but was some degrees under the truth. No
doubt, he had a great wish that his wife should be comfortable; but
he also, for himself, had long been pining after those eligible
comforts, which when they appertain to clergymen, the world, with so
much malice, persists in calling the flesh-pots of Egypt. Thinking
of all this, of the position he had already gained in spite of his
personal disadvantages, and of the great chance there was that his
Margaret might yet be rescued from the Philistines, he resolved upon
a journey to London.

In the meantime Miss Mackenzie's other lover had not been idle, and
he also was resolved by no means to give up the battle.

It cannot be said that Mr Rubb was not mercenary in his views, but
with his desire for the lady's money was mingled much that was
courageous, and something also that was generous. The whole truth
had been told to him as plainly