there say that my heart was all
yours, were you right to leave me?"

"You only laughed at me."

"No;--no; no; I never laughed at you. How could I laugh when you were
all the world to me? Ask Frank;--he knew. Ask Miss Cass;--she knew.
And can you say you did not know; you, you, you yourself? Can any
girl suppose that such words as these are to mean nothing when they
have been spoken? You knew I loved you."

"No;--no."

"You must have known it. I will never believe but that you knew it.
Why should your father be so sure of it?"

"He never was sure of it."

"Yes, Silverbridge; yes. There is not one in the house who does not
see that he treats me as though he expected me to be his son's wife.
Do you not know that he wishes it?" He fain would not have answered
this; but she paused for his answer and then repeated her question.
"Do you not know that he wishes it?"

"I think he does," said Silverbridge; "but it can never be so."

"Oh, Silverbridge;--oh, my loved one! Do not say that to me! Do not
kill me at once!" Now she placed her hands one on each arm as she
stood opposite to him and looked up into his face. "You said you
loved me once. Why do you desert me now? Have you a right to treat me
like that;--when I tell you that you have all my heart?" The tears
were now streaming down her face, and they were not counterfeit
tears.

"You know," he said, submitting to her hands, but not lifting his arm
to embrace her.

"What do I know?"

"That I have given all I have to give to another." As he said this he
looked away sternly, over her shoulder, to the distance.

"That American girl!" she exclaimed, starting back, with some show of
sternness also on her brow.

"Yes;--that American girl," said Silverbridge.

Then she recovered herself immediately. Indignation, natural
indignation, would not serve her turn in the present emergency. "You
know that cannot be. You ought to know it. What will your father
say? You have not dared to tell him. That is so natural," she added,
trying to appease his frown. "How possibly can it be told to him? I
will not say a word against her."

"No; do not do that."

"But there are fitnesses of things which such a one as you cannot
disregard without preparing for yourself a whole life of repentance."

"Look here, Mabel."

"Well?"

"I will tell you the truth."

"Well?"

"I would sooner lose all;--the rank I have; the rank that I am to
have; all these lands that you have been lo