t a lady often takes a fancy to
a suitor _after_ she has rejected him; that precisely _because_ she has
once rejected she ultimately accepts him. And even this chance was, in
circumstances so desperate, not to be neglected. He assumed, therefore,
the countenance, the postures, and the voice of heart-broken but
submissive despair; he affected a nobleness and magnanimity in his
grief, which touched Evelyn to the quick, and took her by surprise.

"It is enough," said he, in sad and faltering accents; "quite enough for
me to know that you cannot love me,--that I should fail in rendering you
happy. Say no more, Evelyn, say no more! Let me spare you, at least,
the pain your generous nature must feel in my anguish. I resign all
pretensions to your hand; you are free!--may you be happy!"

"Oh, Lord Vargrave! oh, Lumley!" said Evelyn, weeping, and moved by
a thousand recollections of early years. "If I could but prove in
any other way my grateful sense of your merits, your too partial
appreciation of me, my regard for my lost benefactor, then, indeed, nor
till then, could I be happy. Oh that this wealth, so little desired by
me, had been more at my disposal! but as it is, the day that sees me
in possession of it, shall see it placed under your disposition, your
control. This is but justice,--common justice to you; you were the
nearest relation of the departed. I had no claim on him,--none but
affection. Affection! and yet I disobey him!"

There was much in all this that secretly pleased Vargrave; but it only
seemed to redouble his grief.

"Talk not thus, my ward, my friend--ah, still my friend," said he,
putting his handkerchief to his eyes. "I repine not; I am more
than satisfied. Still let me preserve my privilege of guardian, of
adviser,--a privilege dearer to me than all the wealth of the Indies!"

Lord Vargrave had some faint suspicion that Legard had created an
undue interest in Evelyn's heart; and on this point he delicately and
indirectly sought to sound her. Her replies convinced him that if Evelyn
had conceived any prepossession for Legard, there had not been time or
opportunity to ripen it into deep attachment. Of Maltravers he had no
fear. The habitual self-control of that reserved personage deceived him
partly; and his low opinion of mankind deceived him still more. For if
there had been any love between Maltravers and Evelyn, why should the
former not have stood his ground, and declared his suit? Lumley would