I am too full of something else to talk
about trifles of that sort. I want you to help me.'
He then rushed into the announcement that he had fallen desperately
in love with a lady who had come on board with her maid at Malta,
where she had been spending the winter. She was not very young,
about his own age, but very beautiful, and of enchanting address.
How she could have remained so long unmarried he could not think.
It could not be but that she had had many offers. She was an
heiress, too, but that Shargar felt to be a disadvantage for him.
All the progress he could yet boast of was that his attentions had
not been, so far as he could judge, disagreeable to her. Robert
thought even less of the latter fact than Shargar himself, for he
did not believe there were many women to whom Shargar's attentions
would be disagreeable: they must always be simple and manly. What
was more to the point, she had given him her address in London, and
he was going to call upon her the next day. She was on a visit to
Lady Janet Gordon, an elderly spinster, who lived in Park-street.
'Are you quite sure she's not an adventuress, Shargar?'
'It's o' no mainner o' use to tell ye what I'm sure or no sure o',
Robert, in sic a case. But I'll manage, somehoo, 'at ye sall see
her yersel', an' syne I'll speir back yer ain queston at ye.'
'Weel, hae ye tauld her a' aboot yersel'?'
'No!' answered Shargar, growing suddenly pale.
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