he
was of good moral repute, a worker, a commendable citizen. But there was
the obligation upon him to speak--it is expected in such cases, if only
as a formality--of his 'love': hard to do even in view and near to the
damsel's reddening cheeks: it perplexed him. He dropped a veil on the
bashful topic; his tone was the same as when he reverted to the material
points; his present income, his position in the great Bank of Shotts
and Co., his prospects, the health of the heir to the Cantor earldom.
He considered that he spoke to a member of the City merchants, whose
preference for the plain positive, upon the question of an alliance
between families by marriage, lends them for once a resemblance
to lords. When a person is not read by character, the position or
profession is called on to supply raised print for the finger-ends to
spell.

Hard on poor Fredi! was Victor's thought behind the smile he bent
on this bald Cupid. She deserved a more poetical lover! His paternal
sympathies for the girl besought in love, revived his past feelings as
a wooer; nothing but a dread of the influence of Mr. Barmby's toned
eloquence upon the girl, after her listening to Dudley Sowerby's
addresses, checked his contempt for the latter. He could not despise the
suitor he sided with against another and seemingly now a more dangerous.
Unable quite to repress the sentiment, he proceeded immediately to
put it to his uses. For we have no need to be scrupulously formal and
precise in the exposition of circumstances to a fellow who may thank the
stars if such a girl condescends to give him a hearing. He had this idea
through the conception of his girl's generosity. And furthermore, the
cognizant eye of a Lucretian Alma Mater having seat so strongly in
Victor, demanded as a right an effusion of the promising amorous graces
on the part of the acceptable applicant to the post of husband of
that peerless. These being absent, evidently non-existent, it seemed
sufficient for the present, after the fashion of the young gentleman, to
capitulate the few material matters briefly.

They were dotted along with a fine disregard of the stateliness of the
sum to be settled on Nesta Victoria, and with a distant but burning wish
all the while, that the suitor had been one to touch his heart and open
it, inspiriting it--as could have been done--to disclose for good and
all the things utterable. Victor loved clear honesty, as he loved light:
and though he hated to b