t in his arms, why
had he let her go without kissing her? It seemed to him now that if
he might have once kissed her, even that would have been a comfort to
him in his present affliction. "D----tion!" he said at last, as he
jumped to his feet and kicked the chair on one side, and threw the
pipe among the ashes. I trust it will be understood that he addressed
himself, and not his lady-love in this uncivil way,--"D----tion!"
Then when the chair had been well kicked out of his way, he took
himself up to bed. I wonder whether Clara's heart would have been
hardened or softened towards him had she heard the oath, and
understood all the thoughts and motives which had produced it.

On the next morning poor Mary Belton was too ill to come down-stairs;
and as her brother spent his whole day out upon the farm, remaining
among reapers and wheat stacks till nine o'clock in the evening,
nothing was said about Clara on that day. Then there came a Sunday,
and it was a matter of course that the subject of which they both
were thinking should be discussed. Will went to church, and, as was
their custom on Sundays, they dined immediately on his return. Then,
as the afternoon was very warm, he took her out to a favourite seat
she had in the garden, and it became impossible that they could
longer abstain.

"And you really mean to go again at Christmas?" she asked.

"Certainly I shall;--I promised."

"Then I am sure you will."

"And I must go from time to time because of the land I have taken.
Indeed there seems to be an understanding that I am to manage the
property for Mr. Amedroz."

"And does she wish you to go?"

"Yes,--she says so."

"Girls, I believe, think sometimes that men are indifferent in their
love. They suppose that a man can forget it at once when he is not
accepted, and that things can go on just as before."

"I suppose she thinks so of me," said Belton wofully.

"She must either think that, or else be willing to give herself the
chance of learning to like you better."

"There's nothing of that, I'm sure. She's as true as steel."

"But she would hardly want you to go there unless she thought you
might overcome either your love or her indifference. She would not
wish you to be there that you might be miserable."

"Before I had asked her to be my wife I had promised to be her
brother. And so I will, if she should ever want a brother. I am not
going to desert her because she will not do what I want her to do,
or