Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

332 RAVENSHOE.
leave you ten thousand more. To the deuce with my honor;
don't talk nonsense."
" You said you were going to be quiet in a moment," he resumed presently.'6 Are you quiet now?"
"Yes, my lord, quiet and happy."
" Are you glad I spoke to you in the dark?"
"Yes."
"You will be more glad that it was in the dark directly. Is
Charles Ravenshoe quite the same to you as other men?"
" No," said Mary; "that he most certainly is not. I could have
answered that question to you in the brightest daylight."
"Humph!" said Lord Saltire. "I wish I could see him and
you comfortably married, do you know? I hope I speak plain
enough. If I don't, perhaps you will be so good as to mention it,
and I'11 try to speak a little plainer."
"Nay; I quite understand you. I wonder if you will understand me, when I say that such a thing is utterly and totally out
of the question."
"I was afraid so. You are a pair of simpletons. My dear
daughter (you must let me call you so), you must contemplate
the contingency I have hinted at in the dark. I know that the
best way to get a man rejected, is to recommend him; I, therefore, only say, that John Marston loves you with his whole heart
and soul, and that he is a protege of mine."
" I am speaking to you as I would to my own father. John
Marston asked me to be his wife last Christmas, and I refused
him."
"0 yes. I knew all about that the same evening. It was
the evening after they were nearly drowned out fishing. Then
there is no hope of a reconsideration there?"
"Not the least," said Mary. "My lord, I will never marry."
"I have not distressed you?"
"' Certainly not. You have a right to speak as you have. I
am not a silly, hysterical girl either, that I cannot talk on such
subjects without affectation. But I will never marry; I will be
an old maid. I will write novels, or something of that sort. I
will not even marry Captain Archer, charm he never so wisely."
" Captain Archer I Who on earth is Captain Archer?"
"Don't you know Captain Archer, my lord?" replied Mary,
laughing heartily, but ending her laugh with a short sob. " Avast
heaving! Bear a hand, my hearties, and let us light this taper.
I think you ought to read his letter. He is the man who swam
with me out of the cruel sea, when the Warren Hastings went
down. That is who he is, Lord Saltire." And at this point, little
Mary, thoroughly unhinged by this strange conversation, broke
down, and began crying her eyes out, and, putting a letter into
his hand, rose to leave the room.