He took his time about the business, coming two or three times a week to smoke his pipe with William Carley, and paying Nelly some awkward blundering compliment now and then in his deliberate hesitating way.

He had supreme confidence in his own position and his money, and was troubled by no doubt as to the ultimate success of his suit.

It was true that Nelly treated him in by no means an encouraging manner--was, indeed, positively uncivil to him at times; but this he supposed to be mere feminine coquetry; and it enhanced the attractions of the girl he designed to make his wife.

As to her refusing him when the time came for his proposal, he could not for a moment imagine such a thing possible.

It was not in the nature of any woman to refuse to be mistress of Wyncomb, and to drive her own whitechapel cart--a comfortable hooded vehicle of the wagonette species, which was popular in those parts.
So Stephen Whitelaw took his time, contented to behold the object of his affection two or three evenings a week, and to gaze admiringly upon her beauty as he smoked his pipe in the snug little oak-wainscoted parlour at the Grange, while his passion grew day by day, until it did really become a very absorbing feeling, second only to his love of money and Wyncomb Farm.