ttention
would have won a woman, he would have won her. I could not help seeing
that was his aim. However, his behaviour to me had not made me wish to
give him any help. And, do you know, I found that he had been speaking
in a very disrespectful way of me. I cannot repeat the names he called
me. It showed me clearly what he was, and, though I did not like to
interfere, still I only hoped he would not succeed in winning that sweet
girl."

"Did he succeed, though?" I exclaimed, in a voice choking with
agitation. "Oh! tell me, Miss Rundle."

"You shall hear," answered the old lady, who was not to be hurried with
her narrative. "Of course, having won the good opinion of the aunt was
a great point in his favour. So he used to continue to go to the house
as often as ever. He took the aunt all sorts of pretty presents, though
he did not venture to offer them to Margaret. At last, however, he
seemed to think that the time was come when he must try his chance. So
he walked in and found Margaret in the room alone, and he told her, in
an off-hand sort of way, that he loved her, and that, if she would marry
him, he would give up the sea and live on shore, and make her
comfortable and happy for the rest of her days."

"Did she accept him? did she marry him?" I exclaimed, interrupting the
old lady.

"You shall hear, Mr Wetherholm," she answered quietly. "What woman
does not feel flattered by receiving a proposal of marriage from a
fine-looking, free-spoken young man. I'm sure I should." And she put
her hand mechanically before her face to hide the gentle blush which the
thought conjured up on her cheek. "She thanked him, but entreated him
not to persist in his offers. Then she frankly told him that one she
had loved had died at sea; that her heart was buried with him in his
ocean grave; and that she could not marry a man she did not love. She
was very firm, and Charles Iffley could not help seeing that he had very
little chance of success. She told me this shortly afterwards. He, it
seems, did not give up his attempt to win her. Somehow or other, he had
taken it into his head that she was speaking of you, though he was
puzzled to know how you had won her heart. He returned several times to
the house, but his chief occupation seems to have been in abusing you.
This made poor Miss Margaret fancy that you all the time were alive, and
that he knew it; and this, of course, made her still less inclined
towards h