Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

52 RAVENSHOE.
"Do you owe him money?"
" No, it's the other way, by Jove! I can't break with that
man. I can't lose the run of Ranford. I must go there.
There's a girl there I care about more than all the world beside;
if I don't see her I shall go mad."
Marston looked very thoughtful. "You never told me of
this," he said; "and she has -she has refused you, I suppose?"
" Ay! how did you guess that?"
"By my mother wit. I did n't suppose that Charles Ravenshoe would have gone on as he has under other circumstances."
"I fell in love with her," said Charley, rocking himself to and
fro, " when she was a child. I have never had another love but
her; and the last time I left Ranford I asked her - you know -
and she laughed in my face, and said we were getting too old for
that sort of nonsense. And, when I swore I was in earnest, she
only laughed the more. And I'm a desperate beggar, by Jove,
and I'11 go and enlist, by Jove."
"What a brilliant idea!" said MIarston. "Don't be a fool,
Charley. Is this girl a great lady?"
" Great lady! Lord bless you, no; she's a dependant, without
a sixpence."
" Begin all over again with her. Let her alone a little. Perhaps you took too much for granted, and offended her. Very
likely she has got tired of you. By your own confession you
have been making love to her for ten years; that must be a great
bore for a girl, you know. I suppose you are thinking of going
to Ranford, now?"
"Yes, I am going for a time."
"The worst place you could go to: much better go home to
your father. Yours is a quiet, staid, wholesome house, not such
a bear-garden as the other place, - but let us change the subject.
I am sent after you."
"By whom?"
"Musgrave. The University Eight is going down, and he
wants you to row four. The match with Cambridge is made
up." ))
"0, hang it!" said poor Charles; "I can't show after this
business. Get a Waterman; do, Marston. They will know all
about it by this time."
"Nay, I want you to come; do come, Charles. I want you to
contrast these men with the fellows you were with last night, and
to see what an effect three such gentlemen and scholars as Dixon,
Hunt, and Smith have in raising the tone of the men they are
thrown among."