His wooing was not a very romantic episode
in his commonplace existence. He did not even attempt to see Ellen alone;
but after he had been seated for about half-an-hour in the
chimney-corner, nestling close to the fire in a manner he much affected,
being of a particularly chilly temperament, given to shiver and turn blue
on the smallest provocation, he delivered himself solemnly of the
following address:--
"I make no doubt, Miss Carley, that you have taken notice for some time
past of my sentiments towards yourself. I have never made any secret of
those sentiments, neither have I talked much about them, not being a man
of many words. I used to fancy myself the very reverse of a marrying man,
and I don't say but what at this moment I think the man who lives and
dies a bachelor does the wisest for his own comfort and his own
prosperity. But we are not the masters of our feelings, Miss Carley. You
have growed upon me lately somehow, so that I've got not to care for my
life without you. Ask Mrs. Tadman if my appetite hasn't fell off within
this last six months to a degree that has frightened her; and a man of my
regular habits must be very far gone in love, Miss Carley, when his
appetite forsakes him. From the time I came to know you as a young woman,
in the bloom of a young woman's beauty, I said to myself, 'That's the
girl I'll marry, and no other.
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