him that all he could now expect was to bequeath sentiments of generous
compassion and friendly interest; to create a favourable impression,
which he might hereafter improve; to reserve, in short, some spot of
vantage-ground in the country from which he was to affect to withdraw all
his forces. He had known, in his experience of women, which, whether as
an actor or a spectator, was large and various--though not among very
delicate and refined natures--that a lady often takes a fancy to a suitor
_after_ she has rejected him; that precisely _because_ she has once
rejected she ultimately accepts him. And even this chance was, in
circumstances so desperate, not to be neglected. He assumed, therefore,
the countenance, the postures, and the voice of heart-broken but
submissive despair; he affected a nobleness and magnanimity in his grief,
which touched Evelyn to the quick, and took her by surprise.

"It is enough," said he, in sad and faltering accents; "quite enough for
me to know that you cannot love me,--that I should fail in rendering you
happy. Say no more, Evelyn, say no more! Let me spare you, at least,
the pain your generous nature must feel in my anguish. I resign all
pretensions to your hand; you are free!--may you be happy!"

"Oh, Lord Vargrave! oh, Lumley!" said Evelyn, weeping, and moved by a
thousand recollections of early years. "If I could but prove in any
other way my grateful sense of your merits, your too partial appreciation
of me, my regard for my lost benefactor, then, indeed, nor till then,
could I be happy. Oh that this wealth, so little desired by me, had been
more at my disposal! but as it is, the day that sees me in possession of
it, shall see it placed under your disposition, your control. This is
but justice,--common justice to you; you were the nearest relation of the
departed. I had no claim on him,--none but affection. Affection! and
yet I disobey him!"