Only thwarted affection in some guise could produce this feeling in an amiable young man.

Sir Nathaniel, as an old diplomatist, had a way of understanding, as if by foreknowledge, the true inwardness of things, and asked suddenly, but in a matter-of-fact, indifferent voice: "Was he after Lilla ?" "Yes, and the fellow didn't lose any time either.

Almost as soon as they met, he began to butter her up, and tell her how beautiful she was.

Why, before he left her side, he had asked himself to tea to-morrow at Mercy Farm.

Stupid ass! He might see that the girl isn't his sort! I never saw anything like it.