Cyprian was himself a little shy, and rather held to Myrtle through his sister than by any true intimacy directly with herself.

Of the other young men of the village Gifted Hopkins was perhaps the most fervent of her admirers, as he had repeatedly shown by effusions in verse, of which, under the thinnest of disguises, she was the object.
William Murray Bradshaw, ten years older than herself, a young man of striking aspect and claims to exceptional ability, had kept his eye on her of late; but it was generally supposed that he would find a wife in the city, where he was in the habit of going to visit a fashionable relative, Mrs.Clymer Ketchum, of 24 Carat Place.

She, at any rate, understood very well that he meant, to use his own phrase, "to go in for a corner lot,"-- understanding thereby a young lady with possessions and without encumbrances.

If the old man had only given his money to Myrtle, William Murray Bradshaw would have made sure of her; but she was not likely ever to get much of it.

Miss Silence Withers, it was understood, would probably leave her money as the Rev.Mr.Stoker, her spiritual director, should indicate, and it seemed likely that most of it would go to a rising educational institution where certain given doctrines were to be taught through all time, whether disproved or not, and whether those who taught them believed them or not, provided only they would say they believed them.
Nobody had promised to say masses for her soul if she made this disposition of her property, or pledged the word of the Church that she should have plenary absolution.