ft
things to Miss Dunstable. Miss Dunstable, however, was accustomed to
hear soft things. She had been carried much about in society among
fashionable people since, on the settlement of her father's will, she
had been pronounced heiress to all the ointment of Lebanon; and many
men had made calculations respecting her similar to those which were
now animating the brain of the Honourable George de Courcy. She was
already quite accustomed to being the target at which spendthrifts
and the needy rich might shoot their arrows: accustomed to being shot
at, and tolerably accustomed to protect herself without making scenes
in the world, or rejecting the advantageous establishments offered
to her with any loud expressions of disdain. The Honourable George,
therefore, had been permitted to say soft things very much as a
matter of course.

And very little more outward fracas arose from the correspondence
which followed than had arisen from the soft things so said. George
wrote the letter, and had it duly conveyed to Miss Dunstable's
bed-chamber. Miss Dunstable duly received it, and had her answer
conveyed back discreetly to George's hands. The correspondence ran as
follows:--

Courcy Castle, Aug. --, 185--.

MY DEAREST MISS DUNSTABLE,

I cannot but flatter myself that you must have perceived
from my manner that you are not indifferent to me. Indeed,
indeed, you are not. I may truly say, and swear [these
last strong words had been put in by the special counsel
of the Honourable John], that if ever a man loved a woman
truly, I truly love you. You may think it very odd that
I should say this in a letter instead of speaking it out
before your face; but your powers of raillery are so great
["touch her up about her wit" had been the advice of the
Honourable John] that I am all but afraid to encounter
them. Dearest, dearest Martha--oh do not blame me for so
addressing you!--if you will trust your happiness to me
you shall never find that you have been deceived. My
ambition shall be to make you shine in that circle which
you are so well qualified to adorn, and to see you firmly
fixed in that sphere of fashion for which all your tastes
adapt you.

I may safely assert--and I do assert it with my hand on
my heart--that I am actuated by no mercenary motives. Far
be it from me to marry any woman--no, not a princess--on
account of her money. No marriage can be happy