He reflected that he had been
unfortunate in the time when he had decided to be a candidate for her
hand; but whatever turn affairs took, no harm was done to his own
prospects by removing Ronald from the list of possible rivals. He was
delighted at the preference Surbiton showed for Sybil Brandon, and in case
Ronald hesitated, he reserved the knowledge he possessed of her private
fortune as a final stimulus to his flagging affections. Hitherto it had
not seemed necessary to acquaint his friend with the fact that Sybil had
an income of some thirty thousand dollars yearly--indeed, no one seemed to
know it, and she was supposed to be in rather straitened circumstances.
As for his own chances with Joe, he had carefully hidden the tracks of his
journalistic doings in the way he had at once proposed to himself when Joe
attacked him on the subject. A gentleman had been found upon whom he had
fastened the authorship of the articles in the public estimation, and the
gentleman would live and die with the reputation for writing he had thus
unexpectedly obtained.
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