. I did not desert her."

"Very well. Then you came back and found her engaged to be my wife.
You had it from her own mouth. When a gentleman hears that, what has
he to do but to go away?"

"There are circumstances here."

"What does she say herself? There are no circumstances to justify
you. If you would come here as a friend, I offered to receive you. As
you had been known to her, I did not turn my back upon you. But now
your conduct is so peculiar that I cannot ask you to remain here any
longer." They were walking up and down the long walk, and now Mr
Whittlestaff stood still, as though to declare his intention that the
interview should be considered as over.

"I know that you wish me to go away," said Gordon.

"Well, yes; unless you withdraw all idea of a claim to the young
lady's hand."

"But I think you should first hear what I have to say. You will not
surely have done your duty by her unless you hear me."

"You can speak if you wish to speak," said Mr Whittlestaff.

"It was not till yesterday that you made your proposition to Miss
Lawrie."

"What has that to do with it?"

"Had I come on the previous day, and had I been able then to tell her
all that I can tell her now, would it have made no difference?"

"Did she say so?" asked the fortunate lover, but in a very angry
tone.

"No; she did not say so. It was with difficulty that I forced from
her an avowal that her engagement was so recent. But she did confess
that it was so. And she confessed, not in words, but in her manner,
that she had found it impossible to refuse to you the request that
you had asked."

"I never heard a man assert so impudently that he was the sole owner
of a lady's favours. Upon my word, I think that you are the vainest
man whom I ever met."

"Let it be so. I do not care to defend myself, but only her. Whether
I am vain or not, is it not true that which I say? I put it to you,
as man to man, whether you do not know that it is true? If you marry
this girl, will you not marry one whose heart belongs to me? Will
you not marry one of whom you knew two days since that her heart was
mine? Will you not marry one who, if she was free this moment, would
give herself to me without a pang of remorse?"

"I never heard anything like the man's vanity!"

"But is it true? Whatever may be my vanity, or self-seeking, or
unmanliness if you will, is not what I say God's truth? It is not
about my weaknesses, or your weaknesses, that we sho