ht be, she
was undoubtedly prepared to make John Niel a faithful and loving wife if
he chose to ask her to marry him.

And as the weeks went on--though, of course, he knew nothing of all
this--it became a very serious question to John whether he should not
ask her. It is not good for a man to live alone, especially in the
Transvaal, and it was not possible for him to pass day by day at the
side of so much beauty and so much grace without thinking that it
would be well to draw the bond of union closer. Indeed, had John been
a younger man of less experience, he would have succumbed to the
temptation much sooner than he did. But he was neither very young nor
very inexperienced. Ten years or more ago, in his green and gushing
youth, as has been said, he had burnt his fingers to the bone, and a
lively recollection of this incident in his career heretofore had proved
a very efficient warning. Also, he had reached that period of life when
men think a great many times before they commit themselves wildly to the
deep matrimonial waters. At three-and-twenty, for the sake of a pretty
face, most of us are willing to undertake the serious and in many
cases overwhelming burdens, risks, and cares of family life, and the
responsibility of the parentage of a large and healthy brood, but at
three-and-thirty we take a different view of the matter. The temptation
may be great, but the per contra list is so very alarming, and we
never know even then if we see all the liabilities. Such are the
black thoughts that move in the breasts of selfish men, to the great
disadvantage of the marriage market; and however it may lower John Niel
in the eyes of those who take the trouble to follow this portion of his
life's history, in the interests of truth it must be confessed that he
was not free from them.

In short, sweet and pretty as Bessie might be, he was not violently in
love with her; and at thirty-four a man must be violently in love to
rush into the near risk of matrimony. But, however commendably
cautious that man may be, he is always liable to fall into temptation
sufficiently strong to sweep away his caution and make a mockery of his
plans. However strong the rope, it has its breaking strain; and in the
same way our power of resistance to any given course depends entirely
upon the power of the temptation to draw us into it. Thus it was
destined to be with our friend John Niel.

It was about a week after his conversation with old Silas Cr