"It is only guesswork on my part, of course. I am an old bachelor, you
see, and have had very little experience as to the signs and tokens of
the tender passion. But I will sound my little girl by and by. She will
be more ready to confess the truth to her old uncle than she would to
you, perhaps. I think you have been a trifle hasty about this affair.
There is so much in time and custom."
"It is only a cold kind of love that grows out of custom," Gilbert
answered gloomily. "But I daresay you are right, and that it would have
been better for me to have waited."
"You may hope everything, if you can-only be patient," said the Captain.
"I tell you frankly, that nothing would make me happier than to see my
dear child married to a good man. I have had many dreary thoughts about
her future of late. I think you know that I have nothing to leave her."
"I have never thought of that. If she were destined to inherit all the
wealth of the Rothschilds, she could be no dearer to me than she is."
"Ah, what a noble thing true love is! And do you know that she is not
really my niece--only a poor waif that I adopted fourteen years ago?"
"I have heard as much from her own lips. There is nothing, except some
unworthiness in herself, that could make any change in my estimation of
her."
"Unworthiness in herself! You need never fear that.
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