“Do you mean that you are engaged to Mr. Walter?”
“Oh, no,” she replied; “but he has asked me to marry him—he has asked me, in fact, more than once; and I really believe that he has a sincere attachment to me.”
She made this latter statement with an odd air, as though the thing asserted were curious and rather incredible, and the tone was evidently noticed by Thorndyke as well as me for he rejoined—
“Of course he has. Why not?”
“Well, you see,” replied Miss Gibson, “I have some six hundred a year of my own and should not be considered a bad match for a young man like Walter, who has neither property nor expectations, and one naturally takes that into account. But still, as I have said, I believe he is quite sincere in his professions and not merely attracted by my money.”
“I do not fi
