no motives of revenge for the occasional
annoyances I had lately sustained from him,--nor yet by any feeling of
malevolent enmity towards Miss Wilson, but purely by the fact that I
could not endure that such a woman should be Mrs. Huntingdon's sister,
and that, as well for his own sake as for hers, I could not bear to think
of his being deceived into a union with one so unworthy of him, and so
utterly unfitted to be the partner of his quiet home, and the companion
of his life. He had had uncomfortable suspicions on that head himself, I
imagined; but such was his inexperience, and such were the lady's powers
of attraction, and her skill in bringing them to bear upon his young
imagination, that they had not disturbed him long; and I believe the only
effectual causes of the vacillating indecision that had preserved him
hitherto from making an actual declaration of love, was the consideration
of her connections, and especially of her mother, whom he could not
abide. Had they lived at a distance, he might have surmounted the
objection, but within two or three miles of Woodford it was really no
light matter.

'You've been to call on the Wilsons, Lawrence,' said I, as I walked
beside his pony.

'Yes,' replied he, slightly averting his face: 'I thought it but civil to
take the first opportunity of returning their kind attentions, since they
have been so very particular and constant in their inquiries throughout
the whole course of my illness.'

'It's all Miss Wilson's doing.'

'And if it is,' returned he, with a very perceptible blush, 'is that any
reason why I should not make a suitable acknowledgment?'

'It is a reason why you should not make the acknowledgment she looks
for.'

'Let us drop that subject if you please,' said he, in evident
displeasure.

'No, Lawrence, with your leave we'll continue it a while longer; and I'll
tell you something, now we're about it, which you may believe or not as
you choose--only please to remember that it is not my custom to speak
falsely, and that in this case I can have no motive for misrepresenting
the truth--'

'Well, Markham, what now?'

'Miss Wilson hates your sister. It may be natural enough that, in her
ignorance of the relationship, she should feel some degree of enmity
against her, but no good or amiable woman would be capable of evincing
that bitter, cold-blooded, designing malice towards a fancied rival that
I have observed in her.'

'Markham!'

'Yes--and it is