Clara Van Siever was a young person whose presence of mind rarely deserted her.  It occurred to her now that she must undergo on some occasion the nuisance of a direct offer from him, and that she could have no better opportunity of answering him after her own fashion than the present.  Her mother was absent, and the field was her own.  And, moreover, it was a point in her favour that the tragedy which had so lately occurred, and to which she had just now alluded, would give her a fair excuse for additional severity.  At such a moment no man could, she told herself, be justified in making an offer of his love, and therefore she might rebuke him with the less remorse.  I wonder whether the last words which Conway Dalrymple had spoken to her stung her conscience as she thought of this!  She had now reached the door, and was standing close to it.  As Mr Musselboro did not at once, begin, she encouraged him.  ‘If you have anything special to tell me, I will hear you,’ she said.

‘Miss Clara,’ he began, rising from his chair, and coming into the middle of the room.  ‘I think you know what my wishes are.’  Then he put his hand upon his heart.  ’And your respected mother is the same way of thinking.  It’s that that emboldens me to be so sudden.  Not but what my heart has been yours and yours only all along, before the old lady so much as mentioned it.’  Clara would give him no assistance, not even the aid of a negative, but stood there quite passive, with her hand on the door.  ’Since I first had the pleasure of seeing you I have always said to myself, “Augustus Musselboro, that is the woman for you, if you can only win her.”  But there was so much against me—­wasn’t there?’ She would not even take advantage of this by assuring him that there certainly always had been much against him, but allowed him to go on till he should run out all the length of his tether.  ’I mean, of course, in the way of money,’ he continued.  ’I hadn’t much that I could call my own when your respected mother first allowed me to become acquainted with you.  But it’s different now; and I think I may say that I’m all right in that respect.  Poor Broughton’s going this way will make it a deal smoother to me; and I may say that I and your mamma will be all in all to each other now about money.’  Then he stopped.

‘I don’t quite understand what you mean by all this,’ said Clara.

’I mean that there isn’t a more devoted fellow in all London than what I am to you.’  Then he was about to go down on one knee, but it occurred to him that it would not be convenient to kneel to a lady who would stand quite close to the door.  ’One and one, if they’re put together well, will often make more than two.  And so they shall with us,’ said Musselboro, who began to feel that it might be expedient to throw a little spirit into his words.

‘If you have done,’ said Clara, ’you may as well hear from me for a minute.  And I hope you will have the sense to understand that I really mean what I say.’