ed on, to go into the garden.
There, in the morning, she had left the bushes and the fruit-trees with
their buds all shut, and now they were clothed in tenderest green.

She looked at them with tranquil pleasure; and while she walked down
the narrow gravel path, she thought to herself how soon she would have
to leave them, never to see them more. But there was not a shade of
regret in her meditations, and her heart, that had passed through so
many storms, had come to a sudden calm.

Half an hour later, she heard Dr. Hansen's step on the pavement of the
little court, which he crossed, and she saw that he was coming through
the garden gate. She made an effort to conceal a gust of emotion that
suddenly came over her, and she looked searchingly in his serious face.

"What news do you bring me? I hope we have not forgotten anything that
may prove a hindrance to so simple a desire as mine is?--"

"Nothing," he answered gravely. "It is settled in the most formal
manner, and all I have to do in this house in the capacity of lawyer,
may be considered as definitively concluded. Will you forgive me, if I
say that the lawyer has not succeeded in silencing the man?--who _will_
speak, even though he has so much reason to fear that he will not find
a hearing."

He paused, as if in expectation of some sign to interpret in his favor,
or against him.

She said nothing, and his courage rose.

"Yon know how I feel;" he continued, "and after our recent conversation
on Sunday evening, I certainly should not have presumed to molest you
with another word that sounded hopeful. Only the day after, I
ascertained from your brother-in-law, what I had already surmised with
pain, that your reason for rejecting every suitor who presented
himself, was because you felt no security that he sought you, not for
your fortune, but for yourself.

"It was small consolation for me to know that it was not, in the first
instance, any special aversion to myself, that had cut me off from all
my hopes of happiness. What could I ever do to convince you of the
bitter injustice of your distrust?--If my undeclared devotion has not
proved it to you in all those years, what farther assurance of mine
could ever convince you of it? But to-day you were so good as to take
me into your confidence, and to allow me to look deeper into your
heart, than would have been necessary for a simple affair of business.
In my office I could not thank you; and here--will you take m