"Exactly; that will be your only chance, strange as it may appear."
"This is very different from what you used to say down at Chaldicotes."
"So it is; but I know her much better than I did when we were there. Since then I have done but little else than study the freaks of her character. If she really likes you—and I think she does—she could forgive you any other crime but that of swearing that you loved her."
"I should hardly know how to propose without saying something about it."
"But you must say nothing—not a word; you must tell her that you are a gentleman of good blood and high station, but sadly out at elbows."
"She knows that already."
"Of course she does; but she must know it as coming directly from your own mouth. And then tell her that you propose to set yourself right by marrying her—by marrying her for the sake of her money."
"That will hardly win her, I should say."
"If it does not, no other way that I know of will do so. As I told you before, it will be no easy task. Of course you must make her understand that her happiness shall be cared for; but that must not be put prominently forward as your object. Your first object is her money, and your only chance for success is in telling the truth."
"It is very seldom that a man finds himself in such a position as that," said Sowerby, walking up and down his sister's room; "and, upon my word, I don't think I am up to the task. I should certainly break down. I don't believe there's a man in London could go to a woman with such a story as that, and then ask her to marry him."
"If you can not, you may as well give it up," said Mrs. Harold Smith. "But if you can do it—if you can go through with it in that manner, my own opinion is that your chance of success would not be bad. The fact is," added the sister after a while, during which her brother was continuing his walk and meditating on the difficulties of his position, "the fact is, you men never understand a woman; you give her credit neither for her strength nor for her weakness. You are too bold and too timid: you think she is a fool and tell her so, and yet never can trust her to do a kind action. Why should she not marry you with the intention
