It is not for want of admirers--oh! no--she has had her ful share of these,

but she is too, too difficult to please. I think, however, she would fal before a _great and good_ man." And she looked hard at Theobald, who blushed; but the days went by and stil he did not propose.Another time Theobald actual y took Mrs Cowey into his confidence, and

the reader may guess what account of Christina he got from her. Mrs Cowey tried the jealousy manoeuvre and hinted at a possible rival. Theobald was, or pretended to be, very much alarmed; a little rudimentary pang of jealousy shot across his bosom and he began to believe with pride that he was not only in love, but desperately in love or he would never feel so jealous. Nevertheless, day after day stil went by and he did

not propose.The Al abys behaved with great judgement. They humoured him til his retreat was practical y cut off, though he stil flattered himself that Page 27

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it was open. One day about six months after Theobald had become an almost daily visitor at the Rectory the conversation happened to turn upon long engagements. "I don't like long engagements, Mr Al aby, do you?" said Theobald imprudently. "No," said Mr Al aby in a pointed tone,

"nor long courtships," and he gave Theobald a look which he could not pretend to misunderstand. He went back to Cambridge as fast as he could go, and in dread of the conversation with Mr Al aby which he felt to be impending, composed the fol owing letter which he despatched that same

afternoon by a private messenger to Crampsford. The letter was as fol ows:--"Dearest Miss Christina,--I do not know whether you have guessed the feelings that I have long entertained for you--feelings which I have

concealed as much as I could through fear of drawing you into an engagement which, if you enter into it, must be prolonged for a

considerable time, but, however this may be, it is out of my power to conceal them longer; I love you, ardently, devotedly, and send these few lines asking you to be my wife, because I dare not trust my tongue to give adequate expression to the magnitude of my affection for you. "I cannot pretend to offer you a heart which has never known either

love or disappointment. I have loved already, and my heart was years in recovering from the grief I felt at seeing her become another's. That, however, is over, and having seen yourself I rejoice over a disappointment which I thought at one time would have been fatal to me. It has left me a less ardent lover than I should perhaps

otherwise have been, but it has increased tenfold my power of

appreciating your many charms and my desire that you should become my wife. Please let me have a few lines of answer by the bearer to let me know whether or not my suit is accepted. If you accept me I wil at once come and talk the matter over with Mr and Mrs Al aby, whom I shal hope one day to be al owed to cal father and mother. "I ought to warn you that in the event of your consenting to be my

wife it may be years before our union can be consummated, for I cannot marry til a col ege living is offered me. If, therefore, you see fit

to reject me, I shal be grieved rather than surprised.--Ever most devotedly yours, "THEOBALD PONTIFEX."And this was al that his public school and University education had been

able to do for Theobald! Nevertheless for his own part he thought his letter rather a good one, and congratulated himself in particular upon his cleverness in inventing the story of a previous attachment, behind which he intended to shelter himself if Christina should complain of any lack of fervour in his behaviour to her.I need not give Christina's answer, which of course was to accept. Much as Theobald feared old Mr Al aby I do not think he would have wrought up his courage to the point of actual y proposing but for the fact of the engagement being necessarily a long one, during which a dozen things might turn up to break it off. However much he may have disapproved of long engagements for other people, I doubt whether he had any particular objection to them in his own case. A pair of lovers are like sunset and sunrise: there are such things every day but we very seldom see them.

Theobald posed as the most ardent lover imaginable, but, to use the vulgarism for the moment in fashion, it was al "side." Christina was in love, as indeed she had been twenty times already. But then Christina

was impressionable and could not even hear the name "Missolonghi" Page 28

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mentioned without bursting into tears. When Theobald accidental y left his sermon case behind him one Sunday, she slept with it in her bosom and was forlorn when she had as it were to disgorge it on the fol owing

Sunday; but I do not think Theobald ever took so much as an old

toothbrush of Christina's to bed with him. Why, I knew a young man once who got hold of his mistress's skates and slept with them for a fortnight and cried when he had to give them up.CHAPTER XI Theobald's engagement was al very wel as far as it went, but there was

an old gentleman with a bald head and rosy cheeks in a counting-house in Paternoster Row who must sooner or later be told of what his son had in view, and Theobald's heart fluttered when he asked himself what view this old gentleman was likely to take of the situation. The murder, however, had to come out, and Theobald and his intended, perhaps imprudently,

resolved on making a clean breast of it at once. He wrote what he and Christina, who helped him to draft the letter, thought to be everything that was filial, and expressed himself as anxious to be married with the least possible delay. He could not help saying this, as Christina was at his shoulder, and he knew it was safe, for his father might be trusted

not to help him. He wound up by asking his father to use any influence that might be at his command to help him to get a living, inasmuch as it might be years before a col ege living fel vacant, and he saw no other chance of being able to marry, for neither he nor his intended had any

money except Theobald's fel owship, which would, of course, lapse on his taking a wife.Any step of Theobald's was sure to be objectionable in his father's eyes, but that at three-and-twenty he should want to marry a penniless girl who was four years older than himself, afforded a golden opportunity which

the old gentleman--for so I may now cal him, as he was at least sixty--embraced with characteristic eagerness.