in the long run. Isn't that a fine doctrine?"

"Quite a practical phoenix!"

"It has done papa so much good! At this moment he's out somewhere,
thinking of what is going on, instead of moping in the house. He
couldn't bear the idea of Will's coming, and now he is already
beginning to complain because he's going away."

"Will, indeed!"

"And why not Will? He's my cousin."

"Yes;--ten times removed. But so much the better if he's to be
anything more than a cousin."

"He is to be nothing more, Mrs. Askerton."

"You're quite sure of that?"

"I am quite sure of it. And I cannot understand why there should be
such a suspicion because he and I are thrown closely together, and
are fond of each other. Whether he is a sixth, eighth, or tenth
cousin makes no difference. He is the nearest I have on that side;
and since my poor brother's death he is papa's heir. It is so natural
that he should be my friend;--and such a comfort that he should be
such a friend as he is! I own it seems cruel to me that under such
circumstances there should be any suspicion."

"Suspicion, my dear;--suspicion of what?"

"Not that I care for it. I am prepared to love him as if he
were my brother. I think him one of the finest creatures I ever
knew,--perhaps the finest I ever did know. His energy and good-nature
together are just the qualities to make the best kind of man. I am
proud of him as my friend and my cousin, and now you may suspect what
you please."

"But, my dear, why should not he fall in love with you? It would be
the most proper, and also the most convenient thing in the world."

"I hate talking of falling in love;--as though a woman has nothing
else to think of whenever she sees a man."

"A woman has nothing else to think of."

"I have,--a great deal else. And so has he."

"It's quite out of the question on his part, then?"

"Quite out of the question. I'm sure he likes me. I can see it in his
face, and hear it in his voice, and am so happy that it is so. But it
isn't in the way that you mean. Heaven knows that I may want a friend
some of these days, and I feel that I may trust to him. His feelings
to me will be always those of a brother."

"Perhaps so. I have seen that fraternal love before under similar
circumstances, and it has always ended in the same way."

"I hope it won't end in any way between us."

"But the joke is that this suspicion, as you call it,--which makes
you so indignant,--is simply a suggestion th