"I imagine that you have a shrewd suspicion of the object of my early
visit; but I suppose I must go into particulars. Must I?"

"I have no conception," I replied, "what your object may be."

"Well, well," said he becoming more at his ease as he proceeded, "it
may be told in a few words. You know that it is totally impossible,
quite out of the question, that an off-hand young fellow like me, and
a good-looking girl like yourself, could meet continually as you and
I have done, without an attachment--a liking growing up on one side or
other; in short, I think I have let you know as plainly as if I spoke
it, that I have been in love with you, almost from the first time
I saw you." He paused, but I was too much horrified to speak. He
interpreted my silence favourably. "I can tell you," he continued,
"I'm reckoned rather hard to please, and very hard to _hit_. I can't
say when I was taken with a girl before, so you see fortune reserved
me--."

Here the odious wretch actually put his arm round my waist: the
action at once restored me to utterance, and with the most indignant
vehemence I released myself from his hold, and at the same time
said:--

"I _have_, sir, of course, perceived your most disagreeable
attentions; they have long been a source of great annoyance to me; and
you must be aware that I have marked my disapprobation, my disgust, as
unequivocally as I possibly could, without actual indelicacy."

I paused, almost out of breath from the rapidity with which I had
spoken; and without giving him time to renew the conversation, I