He hasn't gumption enough.' 'Harry Norman is no fool.' 'I dare say not,' said the captain; 'but take my word, she'll never have him--Lord bless you, Norman knows that as well as I do.' Alaric knew it very well himself also; but he did not say so.
'Now, the long and the short of it is this--why don't you make up to her?
If you'll make up to her and carry the day, all I can say is, I will do all I can to keep the pot a-boiling; and if you think it will help you, you may tell Gertrude that I say so.' This was certainly an important communication, and one to which Alaric found it very difficult to give any immediate answer.

He said a great deal about his affection for Mrs.Woodward, of his admiration for Miss Woodward, of his strong sense of Captain Cuttwater's kindness, and of his own unworthiness; but he left the captain with an impression that he was not prepared at the present moment to put himself forward as a candidate for Gertrude's hand.
'I don't know what the deuce he would have,' said the captain to himself.

'She's as fine a girl as he's likely to find; and two or three thousand pounds isn't so easily got every day by a fellow that hasn't a shilling of his own.' When Alaric took his departure the next morning, he thought he perceived, from Mrs.Woodward's manner, that there was less than her usual cordiality in the tone in which she said that of course he would return at the end of the week.
'I will if possible,' he said, 'and I need not say that I hope to do so; but I fear I may be kept in town--at any rate I'll write.' When the end of the week came he wrote to say that unfortunately he was kept in town.

He thoroughly understood that people are most valued when they make themselves scarce.

He got in reply a note from Gertrude, saying that her mother begged that on the following Saturday he would come and bring Charley with him.
On his return to town, Alaric, by appointment, called on Sir Gregory.