"
"But, sir, you have quite forgotten to add what else you told Lucy?"
"True--true--it is very natural that you should prefer hearing me talk
about Miss Merton, to hearing me talk about potatoes--I'll tell
_that_ to Lucy, too, you may depend on it."
"I sincerely hope you will do no such thing, my dear sir," I cried, in
no little alarm.
"Ah! that betrays guilt--consciousness, I should say; for what guilt
can there be in a virtuous love?--and rely on it, both the girls shall
know all about it. Lucy and I often talk over your matters, Miles; for
she loves you as well as your own sister. Ah! my fine fellow, you
blush at it, like a girl of sixteen! But, there is nothing to be
ashamed of, and there is no occasion for blushes."
"Well, sir, letting my blushes--the blushes of a shipmaster!--but
setting aside my blushes, for mercy's sake _what more_ did you
tell Lucy?"
"What more? Why I told her how you had been on a desert island, quite
alone as one might say, with Miss Merton, and how you had been at sea,
living in the same cabin as it were, for nine months; and it would be
wonderful--wonderful, indeed, if two so handsome young persons should
not feel an attachment for each other. Country might make some
difference, to be sure--"
"And station, sir?--What do you think would be the influence of the
difference of station, also?"
"Station!--Bless me, Miles; what difference in station is there
between you and Miss Merton; that it should cause any obstacle to your
union?"
"You know what it is, sir, as well as I do myself.
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