Ben tried to look very wise then.
"Oh, you will hate me, Ben."
"Eh?"
"I say you will hate me, Ben, when you know all."
Ben shook his head.
"Shan't do any such thing," he said. "Lord bless your pretty eyes, I hate you? I couldn't."
"But—but—"
"Come, come," added Ben, "just take your little bit of an arm under mine. Easy does it, you know. Always think of that, if anything goes amiss. Easy does it; and then you will find things come right in the long run. You may take my word for it."
CHAPTER LXXV.
COLONEL JEFFERY OPENS HIS EYES.
Arabella was weeping, so that for some little time she could say nothing more to Ben; and he did not, in the profundity of his imagination, very well know what to say to her, except now and then muttering the maxim of "Easy does it," which Ben thought singularly applicable to all human affairs. But this was a state of things which could not last; and Arabella Wilmot, nerving herself sufficiently to speak in a few minutes, said to Ben in a low self-deprecatory tone—