Though I say it who shouldn't, Hester is the sweetest girl in Cambridgeshire.

But her mother thinks her much too good to be given in marriage to any man.

This kind of thing was bound to come about some day.' 'But Mrs.Bolton seems to have some personal objection to me.' 'That's probable.' 'I don't know why she should.' 'She has got one treasure of her own, in enjoying which she is shut out from all the rest of the world.

Is it unnatural that she should be a little suspicious about a man who proposes to take her treasure away from her ?' 'She must surrender her treasure to some one,--some day.' 'If it be so, she will hope to do so to a man of whose antecedents she may know more than she does of yours.

What she does know of you is of a nature to frighten her.