about; but I watched them. Marion avoided his name, avoided the
subject: shrunk from the least allusion to it, with evident
distress.'

'Why should she, Mr. Craggs, you know? Why should she, sir?'
inquired Snitchey.

'I don't know why she should, though there are many likely
reasons,' said the client, smiling at the attention and perplexity
expressed in Mr. Snitchey's shining eye, and at his cautious way of
carrying on the conversation, and making himself informed upon the
subject; 'but I know she does. She was very young when she made
the engagement - if it may be called one, I am not even sure of
that - and has repented of it, perhaps. Perhaps - it seems a
foppish thing to say, but upon my soul I don't mean it in that
light - she may have fallen in love with me, as I have fallen in
love with her.'

'He, he! Mr. Alfred, her old playfellow too, you remember, Mr.
Craggs,' said Snitchey, with a disconcerted laugh; 'knew her almost
from a baby!'

'Which makes it the more probable that she may be tired of his
idea,' calmly pursued the client, 'and not indisposed to exchange
it for the newer one of another lover, who presents himself (or is
presented by his horse) under romantic circumstances; has the not
unfavourable reputation - with a country girl - of having lived
thoughtlessly and gaily, without doing much harm to anybody; and
who, for his youth and figure, and so forth - this may seem foppish
again, but upon my soul I don't mean it in that light - might