of it. Out with it! What next?"

Jack gave a groan.

"Well--you see--somehow--I went on and before I knew it there I was
offering to marry her on the spot--and--heavens and earth! Macrorie
--wasn't it a sort of judgment on me--don't you think?--I'd got used to
that sort of thing, you know offering to marry people off hand, you
know, and all that--and so it came natural on this occasion; and I
suppose that was how it happened, that before I knew what I was doing I
had pumped out a violent and vehement entreaty for her to be mine at
once.--Yes, at once--any time--that evening--the next day--the day
after--no matter when. I'll be hanged if I can say now whether at that
moment I was really sincere or not. I'm such a perfect and finished
ass, that I really believe I meant what I said, and at that time I
really wanted her to marry me. If that confounded chaplain that goes
humbugging about there all the time had happened to be in the room, I'd
have asked him to tie the knot on the spot. Yes, I'll be hanged if I
wouldn't! His not being there is the only reason, I believe, why the
knot wasn't tied. In that case I'd now be Mr. Finnimore--no, by Jove
--what rot!--I mean I'd now be her husband, and she'd be Mrs. Randolph
--confound her!"

Jack again relapsed into silence. His confession was a difficult task
for him, and it came hard. It was given piecemeal, like the confession
of a murderer on the day before his execution, when his desire to
confess struggles with his unwillingness to recall the particulars of
an abhorrent deed, and when after giving one fact he delays and
falters, and lapses into long silence before he is willing or able to
give another.

"Well, after that," he resumed, at last, "I was fairly in for it--no
hope, no going back--no escapes--trapped, my boy--nabbed--gone in
forever--head over heels, and all the rest of it. The widow was
affected by my vehemence, as a matter of course--she stammered--she
hesitated, and of course, being an ass, I was only made more vehement
by all that sort of thing, you know. So I urged her, and pressed her,
and then, before I knew what I was about, I found her coyly granting my
insane request to name the day."

"Oh, Jack! Jack! Jack!" I exclaimed.

"Go on," said he. "Haven't you something more to say? Pitch in. Give
it to me hot and heavy. You don't seem to be altogether equal to the
occasion, Macrorie. Why don't you hit hard?"

"Can't do it," said I. "I'm knocked down mysel