te, not for a few weeks; and those
few weeks we must spend in Woodsome."

"You are simply talking, Henry."

"To-morrow, I shall simply act. I do not often go against your wishes,
Emma, but in this affair, as surely as I live and love, I will take my
own way! What did Rose say to you? What excuses did she make for
herself?"

"I think there has been a great deal too much made of the affair.
Rose says, Adriana Van Hoosen had partly promised to go to the
matinee with her, and she went to ask her to redeem her promise
this afternoon, as Irving was in a Shakespearean character. But
Adriana had gone out--gone to see her sister, who is married to a
Dutchman keeping a little grocery on Second Avenue. So then Rose
intended to come back home, but met Mr. Duval, and he persuaded her to
go to the matinee with him. After they came out, they went into the
restaurant for a cream and a glass of wine, and while they were
taking it Antony Van Hoosen came to her in a hurried manner and told
her she must return home at once. Rose was terrified about you. We are
all terrified about you, when you are out of our sight--studying so
much as you do, we naturally think of apoplexy, or a fit of some
kind,--so the poor girl feared you had had a fit, and she was too
terrified to ask questions."

"But why did she not see you as soon as she came home? for Harry says
you did not know she was home until he told you."

"She says she ran upstairs to take off her bonnet, and that she felt
suddenly so ill that she lay down a moment to collect her feelings
before seeing any one; and that she fell asleep, or into a faint--she
does not know which. She had hardly come to herself when I spoke to
her. The poor child has been crying her eyes out, and for a little
while she could say nothing but, 'Oh, mamma, is not this dreadful,
dreadful!' And when I told her you were not sick at all, and none of
us were sick, she was naturally very angry at Mr. Van Hoosen for
frightening her in such a way; and I think myself it was a very great
impertinence."

"Emma! Emma! You know it was a kindness beyond the counting. If Mr.
Van Hoosen had not brought her home, would Mr. Duval have done so?
Dare you think of the possibilities of such a situation? As for me, I
count Antony Van Hoosen to have been a friend beyond price. A man able
to meet such an emergency, and brave enough to face the responsibility
he assumed, is a noble fellow; I care not whose son he is. I hope, I
pra