Mr.Sowerby, in spite of the publicity of his proceedings, proceeded in the matter very well.

He said little about it to those who joked with him, but carried on the fight with what best knowledge he had in such matters.

But so much it is given to us to declare with certainty, that he had not proposed on the evening previous to the morning fixed for the departure of Mark Robarts.
During the last two days Mr.Sowerby's intimacy with Mark had grown warmer and warmer.

He had talked to the vicar confidentially about the doings of these bigwigs now present at the castle, as though there were no other guest there with whom he could speak in so free a manner.

He confided, it seemed, much more in Mark than in his brother-in-law, Harold Smith, or in any of his brother members of Parliament, and had altogether opened his heart to him in this affair of his anticipated marriage.