a young man of great resolution, and accustomed to please
himself, he fell over head and ears in love with Miss Dence, and showed
it then and thereafter.

It did not disturb her composure. She had often been made love to, and
could parry as well as Dick could fence.

She behaved with admirable good sense; treated it all as a polite jest,
but not a disagreeable one.

Mrs. Little lost patience with them both. She drew Henry aside, and
asked him why he allowed Mr. Richard Raby to monopolize her.

"How can I help it?" said Henry. "He is in love with her; and no wonder:
see how beautiful she is, and her skin like white satin. She is ever
so much bigger than I thought. But her heart is bigger than all. Who'd
think she had ever condescended to grind saws with me?"

"Who indeed? And with those superb arms!"

"Why, that is it, mother; they are up to anything; it was one of those
superb arms she flung round a blackguard's neck for me, and threw him
like a sack, or I should not be here. Poor girl! Do you think that
chatterbox would make her happy?"

"Heaven forbid! He is not worthy of her. No man is worthy of her, except
the one I mean her to have, and that is yourself."

"Me, mother! are you mad?"

"No; you are mad, if you reject her. Where can you hope to find her
equal? In what does she fail? In face? why it is comeliness, goodness,
and modesty personified. In person? why she is the only perfect figure I
ever saw. Such an arm, hand, foot, neck, and bust I never saw all in the
same woman. Is it sense? why she is wise beyond her years, and beyond
her sex. Think of her great self-denial; she always loved you, yet
aided you, and advised you to get that mad young thing you preferred to
her--men are so blind in choosing women! Then think of her saving your
life: and then how nearly she lost her own, through her love for you.
Oh, Henry, if you cling to a married woman, and still turn away from
that angelic creature there, and disappoint your poor mother again,
whose life has been one long disappointment, I shall begin to fear you
were born without a heart."

CHAPTER XLII.

"Better for me if I had; then I could chop and change from one to
another as you would have me. No, mother; I dare say if I had never seen
Grace I should have loved Jael. As it is, I have a great affection and
respect for her, but that is all."

"And those would ripen into love if once you were married."

"They might. If it came to her fling