I am deeply grateful, and far more than
repaid for all my care and anxiety on your account; and now thank you
for your confidence, my dear Edmund, though I think you might have
bestowed it after a calmer fashion. It would have been better, I think,
to have said all those violent things to Fanny than to me."

"I _have_ said more than all these to Fanny, and--she has rejected me!"

"Rejected you! my dearest Edmund! I am grieved indeed; but I do not see
how I can help you."

"And yet I should not be quite hopeless if you would plead my cause.
Miss Dalton says that you have loaded her with kindness which she can
never repay; that she values your affection beyond all expression; and
that she is determined not to prove herself unworthy of it by being the
means of disappointing the expectations you may have formed for your
son, for whom, she says, she is no match either in wealth or station.
She would not listen to me when I attempted to speak to her but this
instant in the Laurel Walk, but actually _ran_ away, positively
commanding me not to follow; and yet, I do think, if she had decidedly
disliked me, she would have given me to understand so at once, without
mentioning you. Mother! what do _you_--what _do_ you think?"

"You shall hear presently, Edmund; but in the first place let us find
Miss Dalton."

They went out together, and had not sought her long, when they
discovered her pacing perturbedly up and down a broad walk of
closely-shaven grass, inclosed on both sides by a tall impenetrable
fence of evergreens. As soon as she saw them, she advanced quickly to
meet them, her face covered with blushes, but her bearing open and
proud. Ere Mrs. Beauchamp had time to speak, she exclaimed, "Mrs.
Beauchamp, I do not deserve your reproaches. Never till this morning was
I aware of Mr. Beauchamp's sentiments towards me. Dear, kind friend, I
would have suffered any tortures rather than that this should have
happened."

Fanny was violently agitated; while Mrs. Beauchamp, on the contrary,
preserved a calm exterior. She took one of the young girl's hands
between both of hers, and answered soothingly, "Compose yourself, my
dear Fanny, I entreat you. Believe me, I do not blame you for the
affection my son has conceived for you."

"Oh thank you! Indeed you only do me justice."

"But, Fanny, I blame you very much for another reason."

"For what reason, then, madam?"

"For the same reason which now causes your eye to flash, and