xclaimed; 'I mean that no words can tell how
strong the feeling is that--that--No, I never knew its force till now;
but, Averil, I cannot part with you--you who are all the world to me.'

Lifting her heavy eyelids for a moment, she looked bewildered, and
then, moving towards the door, said, 'I don't know whether this is jest
or earnest--any way, it is equally unsuitable.'

'What do you see in me,' cried Tom, throwing himself before her, 'that
you should suppose me capable of jesting on such a subject, at such a
moment?'

'I never saw anything but supercilious irony,' she answered, in the
same dreamy, indifferent way, as if hardly aware what she was saying,
and still moving on.

'I cannot let you go thus. You must hear me,' he cried, and he wheeled
round an easy-chair, with a gesture of entreaty; which she obeyed,
partly because she was hardly alive to understand his drift, partly
because she could scarcely stand; and there she sat, in the same drowsy
resignation with which she had listened to his former expostulation.

Calm collected Tom was almost beside himself. 'Averil! Averil!' he
cried, as he sat down opposite and bent as close to her as possible,
'if I could only make you listen or believe me! What shall I say? It
is only the honest truth that you are the dearest thing in the whole
world to me! The very things that have given you most offence arose
from my struggles with my own feelings. I tried to crush what would
have its way in spite of me, and now you see its force.' He saw
greater life and comprehension in her eye as he spoke, but the look was
not encouraging; and he continued: 'How can I make you understand! Oh!
if I had but more time!--but--but it was only the misery of those
moments that showed me why it was that I was always irresistibly drawn
to you, and yet made instinctive efforts to break the spell; and now
you will not understand.'

'I do understand,' said Averil, at length entirely roused, but chiefly
by resentment. 'I understand how much a country surgeon's daughter is
beneath an M. D.'s attention, and how needful it was to preserve the
distance by marks of contempt. As a convict's sister, the distance is
so much widened, that it is well for both that we shall never meet
again.'

Therewith she had risen, and moved to the door. 'Nay, nay,' he cried;
'it is for that very reason that all my past absurdity is trampled on!
I should glory in a connection with such as Leonard! Yes, Aver