y they may, cousin, not in ours," continues
Harry, yet in the same state of exaltation--"I had rather have lost an
arm almost than refused the old lady. I tell you it went to my heart
to say no to her, and she so kind to me, and who had been the means of
introducing me to--to--O heaven!"

(Here a kick to an intervening spaniel, which flies yelping from before
the fire, and a rapid advance on the tambour-frame.) "Look here, cousin!
If you were to bid me jump out of yonder window, I should do it; or
murder, I should do it."

"La! but you need not squeeze one's hand so, you silly child!" remarks
Maria.

"I can't help it--we are so in the south. Where my heart is, I can't
help speaking my mind out, cousin--and you know where that heart is!
Ever since that evening--that--O heaven! I tell you I have hardly slept
since--I want to do something--to distinguish myself--to be ever so
great. I wish there was giants, Maria, as I have read of in--in books,
that I could go and fight 'em. I wish you was in distress, that I might
help you, somehow. I wish you wanted my blood, that I might spend
every drop of it for you. And when you told me not to go with Madame
Bernstein..."

"I tell thee, child? never."

"I thought you told me. You said you knew I preferred my aunt to my
cousin, and I said then what I say now, 'Incomparable Maria! I prefer
thee to all the women in the world and all the angels in Paradise--and
I would go anywhere, were it to dungeons, if you ordered me!' And do you
think I would not stay anywhere, when you only desired that I should be
near you?" he added, after a moment's pause.

"Men always talk in that way--that is,--that is, I have heard so," said
the spinster, correcting herself; "for what should a country-bred woman
know about you creatures? When you are near us, they say you are all
raptures and flames and promises and I don't know what; when you are
away, you forget all about us."

"But I think I never want to go away as long as I live," groaned out
the young man. "I have tired of many things; not books and that, I never
cared for study much, but games and sports which I used to be fond
of when I was a boy. Before I saw you, it was to be a soldier I most
desired; I tore my hair with rage when my poor dear brother went away
instead of me on that expedition in which we lost him. But now, I only
care for one thing in the world, and you know what that is."

"You silly child! don't you know I am almost old