ure you forbear to introduce this subject. Consider it a forbidden
one, so far as I am concerned, for I feel quite unworthy of so gifted
and accomplished a gentleman as Mr. Burke."

"You will not discard me surely, Miss Clinton?"

"On that subject, unquestionably."

"No, no, my dear Miss Clinton, you will not say so; do not be so cruel;
you will distress me greatly, I assure you. I am very much deficient in
firmness, and your cruelty will afflict me and depress my spirits."

"I trust not, Mr. Burke. Your spirits are naturally good, and I have
no doubt but you will ultimately overcome this calamity--at least I
sincerely hope so."

"Ah, Miss Clinton, you little know the heart I have, nor my capacity for
feeling; my feelings, I assure you, are exceedingly tender, and I
get quite sunk under disappointment. Come, Miss Clinton, you must not
deprive me altogether of hope; it is too cruel. Do not say no forever."

The arch girl shook her head with something of mock solemnity, and
replied, "I must indeed, Mr. Burke; the fatal no must be pronounced,
and in connection with forever too; and unless you have much virtue
to sustain you, I fear you run a great risk of dying a martyr to a
negative. I would fain hope, however, that the virtue I allude to, and
your well-known sense of religion, will support you under such a trial."

This was uttered in a tone of grave ironical sympathy that not only gave
it peculiar severity, but intimated to Hycy that his character was fully
understood.

"Well, Miss Clinton," said he, rising with a countenance in which there
was a considerable struggle between self-conceit and mortification, a
struggle which in fact was exceedingly ludicrous in its effect, "I must
only hope that you probably may change your mind."

"Mr. Burke," said she, with a grave and serious dignity that was
designed to terminate the interview, "there are subjects upon which a
girl of delicacy and principle never can change her mind, and this I
feel obliged to say, once for all, is one of them. I am now my uncle's
housekeeper," she added, taking up a bunch of keys, "and you must permit
me to wish you a good morning," saying which, with a cool but very
polite inclination of her head, she dismissed Hycy the accomplished, who
cut anything but a dignified figure as he withdrew.

"Well," said her brother, who was reading a newspaper in the parlor, "is
the report favorable?"

"No," replied Hycy, "anything but favorable. I fear,