partner in that shop; but would it be possible to get you in as a partner, supposing Mary were to marry you and had a little money as her fortune?'
'Eh!' said Albert, dropping his look of pride, allowing his hand to fall from his lips, and standing still before his companion with mouth wide open.
'Of course you mean honestly by dear Mary.'
'Oh, sir, yes, on the honour of a gentleman. My intentions, sir, are ———. Mr. Graham, I love that young lady with a devotion of heart, that—that—that—. Then you don't mean to marry her yourself; eh, Mr. Graham?'
'No, Mr. Fitzallen, I do not. And now, if you will so far confide in me, we will talk over your prospects.'
'Oh, very well. I'm sure you are very kind. But Miss Snow did tell me———'
'Yes, I know she did, and she was quite right. But as you said just now, a woman's heart cannot be bought by friendship. I have not been a bad friend to Mary, but I had no right to expect that I could win her love in that way. Whether or no you may be able to succeed, I will not say, but I have abandoned the pursuit.' In all which Graham intended to be exceedingly honest, but was, in truth, rather hypocritical.
'Then the course is open to me,' said Fitzallen.
'Yes, the course is open,' answered Graham.
'But the race has still to be run. Don't you think that Miss Snow is of her nature very—very cold?'
Felix remembered the one kiss beneath the lamp-post,—the one kiss given, and received. He remembered also that Mary's acquaintance with the gentleman must necessarily have been short; and he made no answer to this question. But he made a comparison. What would Madeline have said and done had he attempted such an iniquity? And he thought of her flashing eyes and terrible scorn, of the utter indignation of all the Staveley family, and of the wretched abyss into which the offender would have fallen.
He brought back the subject at once to the young man's means, to his mother, and to the doctor's shop; and though he learned nothing that was very promising, neither did he learn anything that was the reverse. Albert Fitzallen did not ride a very high horse when he learned that his supposed rival was so anxious to assist him. He was quite willing to be guided by Graham, and, in that matter of the proposed partnership, was sure that old Balsam, the owner of the business, would be glad to take a sum of money down. 'He has a son of his own,' said Albert, 'but he don't take to it at all. He's gone into wine and spirits; but he don't sell half as much as he drinks.'
Felix then proposed that he should call on Mrs. Fitzallen, and to
