'It certainly requires some courage,--I should not say a great deal;
and indeed, as far as I am concerned, it demands less courage to
speak out than to hold my tongue.'

'But, you silly boy, you don't know what has happened. The Bishop
has made me an offer of marriage.'

'Good gracious, what an impertinent old man! What have you done
about it, dearest?'

'Well, I have hardly accepted him,' she replied, laughing. 'It is
this event which has suggested to me that I should make my refusal a
reason for confiding our situation to him.'

'What would you have done if you had not been already appropriated?'

'That's an inscrutable mystery. He is a worthy man; but he has very
pronounced views about his own position, and some other undesirable
qualities. Still, who knows? You must bless your stars that you
have secured me. Now let us consider how to draw up our confession
to him. I wish I had listened to you at first, and allowed you to
take him into our confidence before his declaration arrived. He may
possibly resent the concealment now. However, this cannot be
helped.'

'I tell you what, Viviette,' said Swithin, after a thoughtful pause,
'if the Bishop is such an earthly sort of man as this, a man who
goes falling in love, and wanting to marry you, and so on, I am not
disposed to confess anything to him at all. I fancied him
altogether different from that.'