te him. This had been disproved, first
surprisingly, by his reported statement; wondrously, in the second place,
by his call upon her and sudden proposal; thirdly, to a degree simply
astounding, by what had occurred in the city that day. For Neigh, before
the fervour had subsided which was produced in him by her look and
general power while reading 'Paradise Lost,' found himself alone with her
in a nook outside the church, and there had almost demanded her promise
to be his wife. She had replied by asking for time, and idly offering
him the petals of her rose, that had shed themselves in her hand. Neigh,
in taking them, pressed her fingers more warmly than she thought she had
given him warrant for, which offended her. It was certainly a very
momentary affair, and when it was over seemed to surprise himself almost
as much as it had vexed her; but it had reminded her of one truth which
she was in danger of forgetting. The town gentleman was not half so far
removed from Sol and Dan, and the hard-handed order in general, in his
passions as in his philosophy. He still continued to be the male of his
species, and when the heart was hot with a dream Pall Mall had much the
same aspect as Wessex.

Well, she had not accepted him yet; indeed, for the moment they were in a
pet with one another. Yet that might soon be cleared off, and then
recurred the perpetual question, would the advantage that might accrue to
her people by her marriage be worth the sacrifice? One palliative
feature must be remembered when we survey the matrimonial ponderings of
the poetess and romancer. What she contemplated was not meanly to
ensnare a husband just to provide incomes for her and her family, but to
find some man she might respect, who would maintain her in such a stage
of comfort as should, by setting her mind free from temporal anxiety,
enable her to further organize her talent, and provide incomes for them
herself. Plenty of saleable originality was left in her as yet, but it
was getting crushed under the rubbish of her necessities.

She was not sure that Neigh would stand the test of her revelations. It
would be possible to lead him to marry her without revealing anything--the
events of the last few days had shown her that--yet Ethelberta's honesty
shrank from the safe course of holding her tongue. It might be pleasant
to many a modern gentleman to find himself allied with a lady, none of
whose ancestors had ever pandered to a cour