his formal
proposals; but now that he was informed (he could scarcely believe his
senses or command his passions) that her relations wished to force
her into a BARBAROUS marriage with a foreigner of MOST FORBIDDING
APPEARANCE, and most abject circumstances, he lost not a moment in
laying at her feet his own hand and fortune. And he did this the more
confidently, inasmuch as he could not but be aware of Miss Jemima's
SECRET feelings towards him, while he was proud and happy to say, that
his dear and distinguished cousin, Mr. Sharpe Currie, had honoured
him with a warmth of regard which justified the most brilliant
EXPECTATIONS,--likely to be soon realized, as his eminent relative had
contracted a very bad liver complaint in the service of his country, and
could not last long!"

In all the years they had known each other, Miss Jemima, strange as it
may appear, had never once suspected the captain of any other feelings
to her than those of a brother. To say that she was not gratified by
learning her mistake would be to say that she was more than woman.
Indeed, it must have been a source of no ignoble triumph to think that
she could prove her disinterested affection to her dear Riccabocca by
a prompt rejection of this more brilliant offer. She couched the
rejection, it is true, in the most soothing terms. But the captain
evidently considered himself ill used; he did not reply to the letter,
and did not come to the wedding.

To let the reader into a secret, never known to Miss Jemima, Captain
Higginbotham was much less influenced by Cupid than by Plutus in the
offer he had made. The captain was one of that class of gentlemen who
read their accounts by those corpse-lights, or will-o'-the-wisps, called
expectations. Ever since the squire's grandfather had left him--then in
short clothes--a legacy of L500, the captain had peopled the future with
expectations! He talked of his expectations as a man talks of shares in
a Tontine; they might fluctuate a little,--be now up and now down,--but
it was morally impossible, if he lived on, but that he should be a
millionnaire one of these days. Now, though Miss Jemima was a good
fifteen years younger than himself, yet she always stood for a good
round sum in the ghostly books of the captain. She was an expectation to
the full amount of her L4000, seeing that Frank was an only child, and
it would be carrying coals to Newcastle to leave him anything.

Rather than see so considerable a c