for she was
crying, with her arms about his neck; and the old man cried, too, and
smiled over her, and patted her gracious head, with a little trembling
laugh, and said, 'God bless you, my treasure.'

'Well, little Lily, will you have him?' he said, after a little pause.

'No, my darling, no!' she answered, still crying.

'You _won't_ have him?'

'No--no--never!'

'Well, little Lily, I won't answer his letter to-day; there's no hurry,
you know. And, if you are of the same mind to-morrow, you can just say
you wish me to write.'

'Change, I can't; my answer will always be the same--always the same.'

And she kissed him again, and went toward the door; but she turned back,
drying her eyes, with a smile, and said--

'No, your little Lily will stay with her darling old man, and be a
pleasant old maid, like Aunt Becky: and I'll play and sing your
favourite airs, and Sally and I will keep the house; and we'll be
happier in the Elms, I'm determined, than ever we were--and won't you
call me, darling, when you're going out?'

So little Lily ran away, and up stairs; and as she left the study and
its beloved tenant, at every step the air seemed to darken round her,
and her heart to sink. And she turned the key in her door, and threw
herself on the bed; and, with her face to the pillow, cried as if her
heart would break.

So the summer had mellowed into autumn, and the fall of the leaf, and
Devereux did not return; and, it was alleged in the club, on good
authority, that he was appointed on the staff of the Commander of the
Forces; and Puddock had a letter from him, dated in England, with little
or no news in it; and Dr. Walsingham had a long epistle from Malaga,
from honest Dan Loftus, full of Spanish matter for Irish history, and
stating, with many regrets, that his honourable pupil had taken ill of a
fever. And this bit of news speedily took wind, and was discussed with a
good deal of interest, and some fun, at the club; and the odds were
freely given and taken upon the event.

The politics of Belmont were still pretty much in the old position. The
general had not yet returned, and Aunt Rebecca and Gertrude fought
pitched battles, as heretofore, on the subject of Dangerfield. That
gentleman had carried so many points in his life by simply waiting, that
he was nothing daunted by the obstacles which the caprice of the young
lady presented to the immediate accomplishment of his plans. And those
which he once deliberate