It's pretty generally believed
that Willet is going to marry Fanny Markland; and the match is too
good a one for a poor girl to decline. He is rich, educated,
honourable; and, people say, kind and good. And, to speak out my
thoughts on the subject, I think she'd be a fool to decline the
arrangement, even against your magnificent proposals. Still, I'm
heart and hand with you, and ready to venture even upon the old
boy's dominions to serve a long-tried friend. There is one
significant fact which I heard to-day that makes strong against you.
It is said that Mr. Willet is about making a change in his business,
and that Markland is to be associated with him in some new
arrangements. That looks as if matters were settled between the two
families. In my next letter I hope to communicate something more
satisfactory."
On the day after receiving this communication, Lyon, while walking
the floor in one of the parlours, saw a man pass in from the street,
and go hurriedly along the hall. The form struck him as strangely
like that of his friend from whom he was hourly in expectation of
another letter.
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