hat I'd rather marry than I'd be
King of Agra, with a British governor-general for my water-
carrier! The most maddening of all jealousy is for a woman
that one is not in love with! I am not mad, most noble
Drayton, though I am occasionally as near it as is safe for
the surrounders. With the same determination that this girl
says she'll not have me, have I sworn to myself she shall be
mine. It is a fair open game, and I leave _you_, who love a
wager, to name the winner. I have seen many prettier women--
scores ol cleverer ones. I am not quite sure that in the
matter of those social captivarions into which manner
enters, she has any especial gifts. She is not a horsewoman,
in the real sense of the word, which, once on a time, was a
sine qua non of mine; nor, in fact, has she a peculiar
excellence in anything, and yet she gives you the impression
of being able to be anything she likes. She has great
quickness and great adaptiveness, but she possesses one
trait of attraction above all; she utterly rejects _me_,
and sets all my arts at defiance. I saw, very soon after I
came back here, that she was prepared for a regular siege,
and expected a fierce love-suit on my part I accordingly
spiked my heavy artillery, and assumed an attitude of peace-
like indolence. I lounged about, chiefly alone; neither
avoided nor sought her, and, if I did nothing more, I sorely
puzzled her as to what I could mean by my conduct. This
was so far a success that it excited her interest, and I saw
that she watched and was studying me. She even made faint
attempts at little confidences: 'Saw I was unhappy--had
something on my mind;' and, for the matter of that, I had
plenty--plenty on my conscience, too, if nature had been
cruel enough to have inflicted me with one. I, of course,
said 'No' to all these insinuations. I was not happy nor
unhappy. If I sat at the table of life, and did not
eat, it was because I had no great appetite. The
entertainment did not amuse me much, but I had nowhere
particularly to go to. She went one day so far as to hint
whether I was not crossed in love? But I assured her
not, and I saw her grow very pale as I said it. I
even suggested, that though one might have two attacks of
the malady,