“Why should you feel ‘cut up,’ as you call it, by my proposal?” “Oh, because it is like you have been making love to my child, and maybe getting her to be fond of you!” replied John with a profound sigh that seemed to come from the depth of his heart. “Well, that is just exactly what I have been doing—in the hope of winning her for my wife, with your consent. I come now to ask that consent; I only wait for that!” said Ronald earnestly. “And I don’t see why you should take the matter so very deeply to heart,” he added rather sullenly. John groaned and sighed, but answered nothing. “May I hope for your consent to my proposal, Mr. Palmer?” at length inquired the suitor. “No, Mr. Bruce! It can’t be, and it oughtn’t to be! I am hurt to the very bottom of my heart to have to say it, but I must say it. No, Mr. Bruce, you can’t have Em. for your wife!” said John Palmer firmly. The young man turned pale with astonishment, mortification and anger. “May I ask you _why_ you reject me? Have you any objection to me personally?” he hotly demanded, as he arose and stood before John. “To you personally as you stand there, sir, I could have no possible objection. You are a very well made young man, sound in wind and limb, of steady habits and good temper, though a little spirited. No, to you personally I would have no objection. And if you were only a young journeyman mechanic, or a young workman, I do not know any man in the world to whom I would sooner give my girl as a wife, or whom I would sooner welcome as a son-in-law; because I like you, Lieutenant Bruce! And if it would not sound queer from a man’s lips, I might almost say, I love you! _That_ is what makes it so awfully cutting to have to refuse you! Oh, I wish you were a workman!” “So do I, since you seem to consider it an indispensable condition; but if you approve of me as I am, why not accept me as I am?” inquired the young man, now half inclined to laugh and half to weep. John shook his gray-black head in sorrowful silence. “I can’t help being an officer in the navy; but I can help continuing to be so, and I will resign my commission and take up farming if you will give me Em.! I’ll do it at once, next week, to-day!” “Yes, and repent week after week, or even to-morrow! No, it will not do, Mr. Bruce! You are a gentleman born and not fit for Em. You can’t unmake yourself and make yourself over again, and therefore you can never be fit for Em. You must give up all thoughts of her at once and forever! I say it, and by all my soul’s hopes I mean it, young sir.” “But, good Heaven! I can not and will not give her up! To do so would be the ruin of our lives’ happiness!” exclaimed Ronald.