day should come on which she should consent to become his wife. He went
on also to say that he should continue to torment her on the subject
about once a week till he had induced her to give way; and then he
quoted a Latin line to show that a constant dropping of water will
hollow a stone. This was somewhat at variance with a declaration he had
made to Mrs. Burton, of Onslow Crescent, to the effect that he would
never speak to Florence again upon the subject; but then men do
occasionally change their minds, and Harry Clavering was a man who often
changed his.

Florence, as he made the declaration above described, thought that he
played his part of lover very well, and drew herself a little closer to
him as she thanked him for his warmth. "Dear Harry, you are so good and
so kind, and I do love you so truly!" In this way the journey was made
very pleasantly, and when Florence was driven up to the rectory door she
was quite contented with her coachman.

Harry Clavering, who is the hero of our story, will not, I fear have
hitherto presented himself to the reader as having much of the heroic
nature in his character. It will, perhaps, be complained of him that he
is fickle, vain, easily led, and almost as easily led to evil as to
good. But it should be remembered that hitherto he has been rather
hardly dealt with in these pages, and that his faults and weaknesses
have been exposed almost unfairly. That he had such faults, and was
subject to such weaknesses, may be believed of him; but there may be a
question whether as much evil would not be known of most men, let them
be heroes or not be heroes, if their characters were, so to say, turned
inside out before our eyes.

Harry Clavering, fellow of his college, six feet high, with handsome