“No deed, Miss Esther, but I’m dying in love with you.”

“The best thing you can do, is to take yourself home,” said Esther.  “I hope you’re sober.”

“I was never soberer in my life,” said Robert, “but the fact is, Miss Esther, I’m tired of a bachelor’s life; ’pears as if it wasn’t respectable, and so I’m thinking of settling down.”

“You want settling down, for true,” said Esther.

“I’m mighty happy to hear you say so,” said Robert, “and if you’ll only mention what time it’ll be agreeable to you to make me the happiest man in Virginny, I’le speak to Uncle Watty Harkins about performing the ceremony, without you prefer a white minister to tie the knot.”

“Robert,” said Esther, “you’re a born fool; do you mean to say you want me to marry you?”

“Certainly, Esther; I shouldn’t pay you no attentions, if I didn’t mean to act like a gentleman by you.”

“Well, I can tell you,” said Esther, “I wouldn’t marry you, to save your life.”

“You ain’t in earnest, Esther?”

“Indeed I am,” said Esther, “so you better not be coming here on any such fool’s errand again.”

“Why, Esther,” said Robert, reproachfully, “after my walking home from meeting with you, and thinking and dreaming about you, as I have for this long time, aint you going to marry me?”

“No, I aint,” said Esther.

“Then I’ll bid you good night; and look here, Esther, to-morrow, mistress will lose one of her most valuable servants, for I shall hang myself.”

Esther went up the steps, and shut the door on him, internally marvelling at the impudence of men in general; Robert, with a strong inclination to shed tears, turned his steps homeward.  He told Mrs. Kent, the next morning, that he had come to the conclusion not to be married for some time yet, women were so troublesome, and there was no knowing how things would turn out.  Mrs. Kent saw he was much dejected, and concluded there were sour grapes in the question.

After due consideration, Robert determined not to commit suicide; he did something equally desperate.  He married Mrs. Kent’s maid, an ugly, thick-lipped girl, who had hitherto been his especial aversion.  He could not though, entirely erase Esther’s image from his heart—­always feeling a tendency to choke, when he heard her voice in meeting.

Esther told her mother of the offer she had had, and Phillis quite agreed with her, in thinking Robert was crazy.  She charged “Esther to know when she was well off, and not to bring trouble upon herself by getting married, or any such foolishness as that.”

CHAPTER XII.

“I tell you what, Abel,” said Arthur Weston, “the more I think about you Northern people, the harder it is for me to come to a conclusion as to what you are made of.”

“Can’t you experiment upon us, Arthur; test us chemically?”