To me, I confess, the thing was a perfect surprise.

I had not a suspicion that all the while he was coming so regularly to make himself agreeable on my veranda, he was quietly preferring his cousin to any one else.

Not, indeed, that he was ever at particular pains to make himself agreeable! I suppose he has picked up a few graces in Rome.

But he must not acquire too many: if he is too polite when he comes back, Miss Garland will count him as one of the lost.

She will be a very good wife for a man of genius, and such a one as they are often shrewd enough to take.