CHAPTER XIII.
A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE.
What mockeries are our most firm resolves!
To will is ours, but not to execute.
We map our future like some unknown coast,
And say, "Here is an harbour, here a rock—
The one we will attain, the other shun;"
And we do neither. Some chance gale springs up
And bears us far o'er some unfathomed sea.
Our efforts are all vain; at length we yield
To winds and waves, that laugh at man's control.
The next morning there was more restraint than usual at the breakfast table. Norbourne was amazed that, though his mother had refused, on the excuse of a headach, his petition for an interview, she had afterwards received
Lord Norbourne, and their conversation had lasted nearly two hours. That its effect had been a sleepless night, at least, to Mrs. Cour-
