“Never.  Did you?”

“No; and she never would, unless she took an uncommon interest in the person.  When a girl likes a man, she thinks she has a right to ill-use him a little bit; he has got her affection to set against a scratch or two; the others have not.  So she has not the same right to scratch them.  La! listen to me teaching him A B C. Why, David, you know nothing; it’s scandalous.”

Eve’s confidence communicated itself at last to David; but when he asked her whether she thought Lucy would consent to be his wife, her countenance fell in her turn.  “That is a very different thing.  I am pretty sure she likes you; how could she help it? but I doubt she will never go to the altar with you.  Don’t be angry with me, Davy, dear.  You are in love with her, and to you she is an angel.  But I am of her own sex, and see her as she is; no matter who she likes, she will never be content to make a bad match, as they call it.  She told me so once with her own lips.  But she had no need to tell me; worldliness is written on her.  David, David, you don’t know these great houses, nor the fair-spoken creatures that live in them, with tongues tuned to sentiment, and mild eyes fixed on the main chance.  Their drawing-rooms are carpeted market-places; you may see the stones bulge through the flowery pattern; there the ladies sell their faces, the gentlemen their titles and their money; and much I fear Miss Fountain’s hand will go like the rest—­to the highest bidder.”

“If I thought so, my love, deep as it is, would turn to contempt; I would tear her out of my heart, though I tore my heart out of my body.”  He added, “I will know what she is before many hours.”

“Do, David.  Take her off her guard, and make hot love to her; that is your best chance.  It is a pity you are so much in love with her; you might win her by a surprise if you only liked her in moderation.”

“How so, dear Eve?”

“The battle would be more even.  Your adoring her gives her the upper hand of you.  She is sure to say ‘no’ at first, and then I am afraid you will leave off, instead of going on hotter and hotter.  The very look she will put on to check you will check you, you are so green.  What a pity I can’t take your place for half an hour.  I would have her against her will.  I would take her by storm.  If she said ‘no’ twenty times, she should say ‘yes’ the twenty-first; but you are afraid of her; fancy being afraid of a woman.  Come, David, you must not shilly-shally, but attack her like a man; and, if she is such a fool she can’t see your merit, forgive her like a man, and forget her like a man.  Come, promise me you will.”

“I promise you this, that if I lose her it shall not be for want of trying to win her; and, if she refuses me because I am not her fancy, I shall die a bachelor for her sake.”  Eve sighed.  “But if she is the mercenary thing you take her for—­if she owns to liking me, but prefers money to love, then from that moment she is no more to me than a picture or a statue, or any other lovely thing that has no soul.”