It would be rascally: for suppose I was to say to her thus--because I abound in money myself, I won’t marry you unless you abound also; what sort of a reason would that be? Or again, because I am a plain gentleman, and you are quite as well born as myself, in short, in every respect my equal, therefore I must seek for something higher--_I must not disappoint the expectation of my friends; I must not do what is unbecoming of my situation_--How would that sound? What kind of opinion would you form of a man, who should act and argue in that way? You would despise him, Amelia; you would say to him in earnest what you say to me in jest--Don’t let us meet, if it be possible to avoid it: should I come to visit your family, take care not to be at home--Ah Amelia, Amelia, if so you wished to have disposed of me, why did not you contrive to make your visit to Kray Castle, as my aunt proposed to you, when you knew I could not be there? Nay, that is not a fair question, she replied: why do I think these minutes happier than any I have passed, since last we met in this room together?--Here the conversation no longer turned upon interrogatories: it was not of the nature of argumentation or discussion; it would elude short-hand; for the pauses, when no words were interchanged, were employed in contemplating the miniature, affixing it to the chain, and adjusting it to the pearly neck of the fair possessor, which, with other businesses of not less moment, occupied the thoughts of the parties, till Mrs. Jennings made her entrance, and announced to John De Lancaster that a young man, who called himself the son of Ap Rees, the minstrel of Penruth, was waiting and extremely urgent to be admitted; a wish, that was immediately complied with.