To devote my life to you, to make you partaker of my ambition, my career, to raise you to the highest eminence in the matronage of England, to transfer pride from myself to you, to love and to honour and to prize you,--all this will be my boast; and all this will win love for me at last.

Fear not, Evelyn,--fear not for your happiness; with me you shall know no sorrow.

Affection at home, splendour abroad, await you.

I have passed the rough and arduous part of my career; sunshine lies on the summit to which I climb.

No station in England is too high for me to aspire to,--prospects, how bright with you, how dark without you! Ah, Evelyn! be this hand mine--the heart shall follow!" Vargrave's words were artful and eloquent; the words were calculated to win their way, but the manner, the tone of voice, wanted earnestness and truth.