and even this happiness cannot inspire me with fine language.
But what can I DO for you?--there is where I hope to show my sense of
what I owe to you."

"First, then, we must leave this place and walk home, for I think
people are looking at us," said Elsie, trying to collect her thoughts;
"and then you must tell me what I am to do with Mrs. Peck, if that is
her name. Mrs. Phillips calls her Mrs. Mahoney. The paper you saw in my
hand, which she snatched away, was an agreement to pay a sum of money
if we were put in possession of Cross Hall. If I had signed it, it
would have been of no value to her; but I hesitated about it, for I did
not like cheating even her, and making her risk bringing herself to
justice for nothing."

"I will go to see her myself, and negotiate for you. I do not think I
should have much scruple in outwitting her, for she really deserves it,
and it is only letting her over reach herself. Will you give me full
powers to act for you?"

"Oh, yes," said Elsie; "if she will only deal with you it will be so
much better."

"Upon the footing on which we stand together at present it is quite
right and proper that I should do so," said Brandon, accepting the
responsibilities of his position with great satisfaction. "You did not
get my letter. Emily and your sister told me you sailed before the mail
come in, which contained that painful work of composition. I wrote to
you whenever I got out to Barragong, and saw that I really had not been
so nearly ruined as I thought. I determined to do it on the occasion
when I parted with you in the nursery."

"Shall I say, like Miss Harriett Phillips, that I conquered you by
making a ballad in your praise? for these men can be led by nothing so
well as by vanity and selfishness. No, I will not say it, for I do not
think you are either vain or selfish. I should not like you if you
were," said Elsie.

"Say LOVE, Alice, it sounds much sweeter, and goes more to my heart.
You like your cousin, or no-cousin Francis, but you must LOVE me."

"Well, love be it," said Alice; "but I really love Francis a good deal,
too--not as I love you, or as I intend to love you, for I really don't
know how I feel just yet, but still not mere liking."

"I am not at all jealous," said Brandon, "though all his literary
talents and tastes should make me feel my own inferiority."

"Even Jane never would allow me to say that you were inferior to
Francis; she said your talents lay in a differe