This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 Excerpt:...was strong. He heard why that piece of stone was a tadpole, carried away with him a vast amount of information that was very much muddled up within him, and never made the attempt to sort it or put it in order, which was rather ungrateful of him perhaps. But then he was very much in love with Amy, and old as the affections are, they have no sympathy with fossilised creation. It came out at last. One evening when Forbes had been up and down some months, he stopped a pending lecture by asking if he might be allowed to speak for a few moments on another subject. "Certainly," said the obliging antiquarian. "I daresay you have noticed," said the young man, 'that I am very much in love with Amy." "Bless me--no!" exclaimed the startled listener. "And that she is also attached to me." "I thought you were friends; dear me." "We are lovers, sir, and have been so for three years. I am now in a position to take a wife, and I ask you to let me have her." Fossil Blake sat down and passed his hand across his brow. It was a very rude awakening from a pleasant dream to a sad reality. In one moment he was sent back again to the lonely condition in which Amy found him. "I am a dull old man," he said, "and see nothing outside myself and these things," waving his hand towards the cases; "but really I ought to have guessed it. I don't know that I have any right to say no. It is a matter for you to settle between yourselves." "You have no objection then, sir?" "None at all. I have no right to make any." Frederick Forbes hurriedly expressed his thanks and bounded out of the room to tell Amy the good news. The antiquarian sat upright, looking dismally about him. "...