himself that he had been beaten; owning so much, but owning it
with great sorrow and much shame. Since that he had come of age;
since that he had made speeches, and speeches had been made to him;
since that he had gained courage by flirting with Patience Oriel. No
faint heart ever won a fair lady, as he was well aware; he resolved,
therefore, that his heart should not be faint, and that he would see
whether the fair lady might not be won by becoming audacity.

"Mary," said he, stopping in the path--for they were now near the
spot where it broke out upon the lawn, and they could already hear
the voices of the guests--"Mary, you are unkind to me."

"I am not aware of it, Mr Gresham; but if I am, do not you retaliate.
I am weaker than you, and in your power; do not you, therefore, be
unkind to me."

"You refused my hand just now," continued he. "Of all the people here
at Greshamsbury, you are the only one that has not wished me joy; the
only one--"

"I do wish you joy; I will wish you joy; there is my hand," and she
frankly put out her ungloved hand. "You are quite man enough to
understand me: there is my hand; I trust you use it only as it is
meant to be used."

He took it in his and pressed it cordially, as he might have done
that of any other friend in such a case; and then--did not drop it
as he should have done. He was not a St Anthony, and it was most
imprudent in Miss Thorne to subject him to such a temptation.

"Mary," said he; "dear Mary! dearest Mary! if you did but know how I
love you!"

As he said this, holding Miss Thorne's hand, he stood on the pathway
with his back towards the lawn and house, and, therefore, did not at
first see his sister Augusta, who had just at that moment come upon
them. Mary blushed up to her straw hat, and, with a quick jerk,
recovered her hand. Augusta saw the motion, and Mary saw that Augusta
had seen it.

From my tedious way of telling it, the reader will be led to imagine
that the hand-squeezing had been protracted to a duration quite
incompatible with any objection to such an arrangement on the part of
the lady; but the fault is mine: in no part hers. Were I possessed
of a quick spasmodic style of narrative, I should have been able
to include it all--Frank's misbehaviour, Mary's immediate anger,
Augusta's arrival, and keen, Argus-eyed inspection, and then Mary's
subsequent misery--in five words and half a dozen dashes and inverted
commas. The thing should have been so