The herald., 1896-08-23

soon discovered that wilmay never allowed
proposal. grew more easy In my mind
1t seemed as il Bertha would be compelled
to let Wllmay choose her own husband.
Only tw.ss did Wilmay In person actually
receive proposal. The first proposal was
from young novelist, man Of good FAM
ily but with no means. He seems to have
been really very much in love with Will
may He compelled her to hear him, even
though he told her at the time that he
knew there was no hope for him. Wilmay
refused him definitely and finally, but she
did not laugh this time. On the contrary
as she told me in her letter about it, she
cried. "He turned white and fdgetted
with his hands, and began sentences which
| he couldn't finish. And then he was so
humble ,and didn't seem to think anything
about himself. and his eyes were so sad
couldn't help crying and l do hope I'll
never have anything of the kind happen to
me again." Bertha was exceedingly angry
with this young man. After his refusal, he
went very much to the bad, which without
doubt was quite romantic Of him, though it
would probably have paid him better to
have written a novel,
The second proposal was from young
baronet, Sir Vincent Carrone, and this pro-
posal Wilmay accepted. AS l have done
justice to Bertha, let me also do Justice to
Sir Vincent He was a man of twenty
eight. good-looking and sufficiently
wealthy He was honestly in love with
Wilmay, and in most respects he was fine
fellow. He was not clever, but neither was
he appalingly stupid He was straight
man with a good reputation and liking for
country life and sport. Before the proposal
took place, l had letter from Bertha about
him. He had said nothing to her. but he
was paying very marked attention to Will
may, and Bertha felt sure that he would
ask Wilmay to marry him. / replied that
il Wilmay was really fond of the man and
accepted him, nothing could be more salts
factory, but that in the meantime Bertha
had better not interfere. How far she did
Interfere, IL at all, have never learned since
nor wished to learn.
Bertha announced to me the engagement
in letter of six rhapsodic pages She was
quite certain that Wilmay would be very
happy Sir Vincent was so good, and so
kind. and-but there was no end to her
praise Of him. I am quite sure that at this
time. as at all other times Bertha only de-
sired Wilmay's happiness. If she influenced
Wilmay at all, it was only with the view
OF securing that happiness. She concluded
by saying that Wilmay would also write to
me. but that she was very shy in speaking
or writing of the engagement.
The letter from Wilmay was much short
er. and did not quite like it. There was an
almost pathetic reteration that she hoped,
or she believed, that she was going to be
happy. But there was no statement that
she actually was happy then. She too
praised Vincent but almost in the same
terms that Bertha used, as if she were re.
peating lesson. She did not describe. and
of course I had not expected her to des-
cribe, the circumstances of the proposal:
but I was surprised that the greater part OF
the letter was about Bertha and not about
herself or her lover. 1 was not quite satis-
fed, and yet l seemed to have no definite
ground for interference. I did my best to
eliminate any personal feelings of my own
and look at the thing fairly, and 1 found
nothing to support my objection but some