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	How Haney declared himself.
it in a letter to her and claiming it as his,
if anybody�s right. (Rather a bad way to deal
with a woman!)     But he didn�t mistake me
for a rival.      He was so undemonstrative in his
manner towards the girl, that she could hardly
believe the assurances of others who were positive
about it.     (At Mort Thomson�s, Mrs T. and
Welles spoke of it as an �engagement� before Nast,
which �Tommy� disputed � of which more anon.)
When Haney avowed himself, partly influenced
to it, I think, by my counsel (I thought he was
letting less worthy suitors walk over the course)
Sally�s surprise and confusion might have
misled him into a supposition of her acceptance.
One of her half-joking, half-daring advances
produced it; they were scribbling questions and
answers over the table when he spoke out seriously
in response to one of her admissions.  She didn�t 
know how to look, ran up stairs, or something
of the kind.   On a subsequent evening he inquired
whether she had informed and consulted with her
mother.       (Mrs Edwards learnt it from Jack:
Sally told Eliza, not Matty, as Haney supposed,
in his note to me.)   For a brief time, Haney seemed
to regard it as an engagement, to look upon Sally
as his especial charge and property when the family went out to
the theatre &c.      I was present on one of these occa-