two nicely booted feet
toeing out squarely on the floor, his two hands on his knees, and
listened to what she had to say, while his boyish face changed and
whitened. Thomas was older than Charlotte, but he looked younger.
It seemed, too, as if he looked younger when with her than at other
times, although he was always anxiously steady and respectful, and
lost much of that youthful dash which made him questioningly admired
by the young people of Pembroke.

Charlotte began at once after they were seated. Her fair, grave face
colored, her voice had in it a solemn embarrassment. "I don't know
but you thought I was doing a strange thing to ask you to come here
to-night," she said.

"No, I didn't; I didn't think so, Charlotte," Thomas declared,
warmly.

"I felt as if I ought to. I felt as if it was my duty to," said she.
She cast her eyes down. Thomas waited, looking at her with vague
alarm. Somehow some college scrapes of his flashed into his head, and
he had a bewildered idea the she had found them out and that her
sweet rigid innocence was shocked, and she was about to call him to
account.

But Charlotte continued, raising her eyes, and meeting his gravely
and fairly:

"You've been coming here three Sabbath evenings running, now," said
she.

"Yes, I know I have, Charlotte."

"And you mean to keep on coming, if I don't say anything to hinder
it?"

"You know I do, Charlotte," replied Thomas, with ardent eyes upon her
face.

"Then," said Charlotte, "I feel as if it was my duty to say this to
you, Thomas. If you come in any other way than as a friend, if you
come on any other errand than friendship, you must not come here any
more. It isn't right for me to encourage you, and let you come here
and get your feelings enlisted. If you come here occasionally as a
friend in friendship I shall be happy to have you, but you must not
come here with any other hopes or feelings."

Charlotte's solemnly stilted words, and earnest, severe face chilled
the young man opposite. His face sobered. "You mean that you can't
ever think of me in any other way than as a friend," he said.

Charlotte nodded. "You know it is not because there's one thing
against you, Thomas."

"Then it is Barney, after all."

"I was all ready to marry him a few weeks ago," Charlotte said, with
a kind of dignified reproach.

Thomas colored. "I know it, Charlotte; I ought not to have
expected--I suppose you couldn't get over it so soon. I couldn't i