“But that would scarcely be honorable either,” demurred the doctor.

“You’re mighty particular!  Yes, it would, too!  Jest you listen to me!  Now if so be we were to go and publish about Marian’s fortune, we’d have a whole herd of fortune hunters, who don’t care a cent for anything but fortune, running after and worrying the life out of her, and maybe one of them marrying of her, and spending of her money, and bringing of her to poverty, and breaking of her heart.  Whereas, if we keep the secret of the estate to ourselves, you, who desarve her, because you ’counted her all the same when she was poor, and who’d take good care of her property, and her, too—­would have her all to yourself, and nobody to interfere.  Don’t you see?”

“Well, to be sure—­when one looks at the thing in this light,” deliberated the sorely-tempted lover.

“Of course!  And that’s the only light to look at it in!  Don’t you see?  Why, by gracious! it seems to me as if we were doing Marian the greatest favor.”

CHAPTER XX.

AS A LAST RESORT.

In the meantime Marian’s heart was weighed down by a new cause of sorrow and anxiety.  Thurston never approached her now, either in person or by letter.  She never saw him, except at the church, the lecture-room, or in mixed companies, where he kept himself aloof from her and devoted himself to the beautiful and accomplished heiress Angelica Le Roy, to whom rumor gave him as an accepted suitor.

So free was Marian’s pure heart from jealousy or suspicion that these attentions bestowed by Thurston, and these rumors circulated in the neighborhood, gave her no uneasiness.  For though she had, for herself, discovered him to be passionate and impetuous, she believed him to be sound in principle.  But when again and again she saw them together, at church, at lecture, at dinner parties, at evening dances; when at all the Christmas and New Year festivities she saw her escorted by him; when she saw him ever at her side with a devotion as earnest and ardent as it was perfectly respectful; when she saw him bend and whisper to the witching girl and hang delighted on her “low replies,” her own confidence was shaken.  What could he mean?  Was it possible that instead of being merely impulsive and erring, he was deliberately wicked?  No, no, never!  Yet, what could be his intentions?  Did he really wish to win Angelica’s heart?  Alas! whether he wished so or not, it was but too evident to all that he had gained her preference.  In her blushing cheek and downcast eyes, and tremulous voice and embarrassed manner, when he was present, in her abstracted mind, and restless air of wandering glances when he was absent, the truth was but too clear.

Marian was far too practical to speculate when she should act.  It was clearly her duty to speak to Thurston on the subject, and, repugnant as the task was, she resolved to perform it.  It was some time before she had the opportunity.