This
concession gave the poor man time to recover such relics of
strength as were still left to him, and to consult his friends in
Glasgow on the doubtful question of his life to come.
The prospect was a serious one. Dermody was quite unfit for any
sedentary employment; and the little money that he had saved was
not enough to support his daughter and himself. The Scotch
friends were willing and kind; but they had domestic claims on
them, and they had no money to spare.
In this emergency, the passenger in the wrecked vessel (whose
life Dermody had saved) came forward with a proposal which took
father and daughter alike by surprise. He made Mary an offer of
marriage; on the express understanding (if she accepted him) that
her home was to be her father's home also to the end of his life.
The person who thus associated himself with the Dermodys in the
time of their trouble was a Dutch gentleman, named Ernest Van
Brandt. He possessed a share in a fishing establishment on the
shores of the Zuyder Zee; and he was on his way to establish a
correspondence with the fisheries in the North of Scotland when
the vessel was wrecked. Mary had produced a strong impression on
him when they first met. He had lingered in the neighborhood, in
the hope of gaining her favorable regard, with time to help him.
Personally he was a handsome man, in the prime of life; and he
was possessed of a sufficient income to marry on. In making his
proposal, he produced references to persons of high social
position in Holland, who could answer for hi m, so far as the
questions of character and position were concerned.
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