He had not quite made up
his mind; but he had come to the time when a man must forthwith accept
matrimony frankly, or, if he be wise, shake hands with bleak celibacy,
and content himself for his earthly future with monastic jollity and
solitude.
It is a maxim with charitable persons--and no more than a recognition of
a great constitutional axiom--to assume, in the absence of proof to the
contrary, that every British subject is an honest man. Now, if we had
gone to Lord Castlemallard for his character--and who more competent to
give him one--we know very well what we should have heard about
Dangerfield; and, on the other hand, we have never found him out--have
we, kind reader?--in a shabby action or unworthy thought; and,
therefore, it leaves upon our mind an unpleasant impression about that
Mr. Mervyn, who arrived in the dark, attending upon a coffin as
mysterious as himself, and now lives solitarily in the haunted house
near Ballyfermot, that the omniscient Dangerfield should follow him,
when they pass upon the road, with that peculiar stern glance of
surprise which seemed to say,--'Was ever such audacity conceived? Is the
man mad?'
But Dangerfield did not choose to talk about him--if indeed he had
anything to disclose--though the gentlemen at the club pressed him often
with questions, which however, he quietly parried, to the signal
vexation of active little Dr.
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