hen
at last they all sat down beneath the trees to rest, he asked,
anxiously:

"Are you offended with me, that you seem so cold and quiet?"

The wistful blue eyes turned gravely on his face.

"I thought you were offended with me, because of last night; you looked
so angry while I was telling you of my scare," she answered, timidly.

"Angry with you, child? How could any one have the heart?" he cried. "I
was angry, I own, but it was because I believed that some of the
servants had played a cruel joke on you. But I have ordered a strict
investigation, and if the plot is discovered, the guilty parties shall
certainly suffer."

"Oh, if I could think it only a joke; but it seemed so terribly real!"
she breathed, tremblingly; and he longed to catch her in his arms and
kiss away her fears.

But the proprieties forbid this soothing process; so he hastened to
assure her that it could not possibly be real, only a trick of some
malicious person, who would certainly be discovered and punished.

"And now, Dainty," he said--"may I call you Dainty?" he added,
tenderly; for she had looked up with a start.

She faltered, "Yes," and he proceeded in a low voice thrilling with
passion:

"Dainty, you told me your story of last night, now I will tell you mine.
When I opened my door at your frenzied knock, and you fell fainting into
my arms, I longed to hold you there forever; for, darling, I lost my
heart to you even before I saw your bonny face, as soon as I heard your
sweet voice sobbing to your mother, inside the window, of the cruel
treatment of your jealous cousins. When I came into the parlor, and saw
you with the tears in your lovely eyes, I thought you fairer than any
flower, and longed to kiss your tears away. All the way to Ellsworth I
was longing to tell you that I loved you so I could not live without
you, and that you must promise to be my cherished bride. Can you believe
in a love so sudden and sweet and overwhelming as this I am confessing
to you?"

"Yes, oh, yes!" the girl murmured, forgetting Ela's caution, that he
must very likely be a dreadful flirt, and carried away by the fervor of
his passion, and the responsiveness of her own heart.

Oh, what a beautiful light of joy leaped to his eyes at her encouraging
reply!

"Bless you, my darling, bless you! Then our hearts have leaped to meet
each other. You will promise to be mine?" he cried, eagerly, his glad
eyes beaming on her face, the only demonstration of l